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AN INQUIRY >^ 



CONCERNING THE 



ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY. 



CHARLES C. HENNELL. 



SECOND EDITION. 




LONDON : 



T. ALLMAN, 42, HOLBORN HILL ; 
JOHN CHAPMAN, 121, NEWGATE STREET. 



1845. 



***** j 

.H4- 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION, 



To those whose interest is already so much awakened 
upon the subject of the divine origin of Christianity, 
that they feel the necessity of arriving at some certain 
conclusion, more than they fear any possible results to 
which such inquiries may lead, this attempt to contri- 
bute to the solution of the difficult question is offered. 
The hypothesis, that there is a mixture of truth and 
fable in the four Gospels, has been admitted, in different 
degrees, by many critics bearing the Christian name. 
The same method of free investigation which led 
Priestley and Belsham to throw doubt upon the truth 
of the opening chapters of Matthew and Luke, may 
allow other inquirers to make further excisions from 
the Gospel history. The reasons given by those emi- 
nent critics for proceeding so far may appear more valid 
than any which can be urged for stopping where they 
did. The right of private judgment in the separation 
of truth from fiction being once accorded, the precise 
limits which ought to be assigned to the credible por- 
tion of the miraculous narratives are far from being ob- 
vious ; and the ascertaining of these limits becomes a 
matter of interesting research to all who wish to know 

a2 



V PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 

what they are to believe or disbelieve on the subject of 
the Christian religion. 

The following pages are the result of an investigation 
undertaken with this view, and pursued for some time 
with the expectation that, at least, the principal mira- 
culous facts supposed to lie at the foundation of Chris- 
tianity would be found to be impregnable ; but it was 
continued with a gradually increasing conviction that the 
true account of the life of Jesus Christ, and of the spread 
of his religion, would be found to contain no deviation 
from the known laws of nature, nor to require, for their 
explanation, more than the operation of human motives 
and feelings, acted upon by the peculiar circumstances of 
the age and country whence the religion originated. 

The analysis of the four Gospels, proceeding on the 
admission that they may contain a mixture of truth and 
error, is a very complicated but not impracticable task. 
It is necessary to form an opinion as to the date of each 
writing, the general character of each author, and his pe- 
culiarities as a writer ; to institute continual comparisons 
between the events or discourses which he relates, and the 
opinions and controversies which arose subsequently to 
his own time ; to weigh the probability in favour of the 
real occurrence of a fact, considered in reference to the as- 
certained history of the time, with that in favour of its 
invention by the author or some intermediate narrator ; 
to consider what greater degree of weight is due to the 
testimony from the accordance of all, or of several of 
the writers ; and to ascertain whether they wrote inde- 
pendently, or copied from each other. By this labo- 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. V 

rious method of sifting and examining, it must be 
admitted that it would be possible to obtain a tolerably 
correct history from a collection of records acknowledged 
to be of a very mixed character. 

The doctrine of the divine inspiration, or of the un- 
questionable veracity, of the Gospel writers, has hitherto 
hindered the full application of this free method of in- 
vestigation to the New Testament, on the part of be- 
lievers in Christianity ; and unbelievers seem generally 
to have been more intent upon raising objections and 
cavils to the narratives as they stand, than in searching 
out the real truth. Hence it has frequently been ob- 
served, that no clear and intelligible account has been 
given of the life of Jesus Christ on simply natural 
grounds ; whence it has been argued, that no alterna- 
tive remains but to regard him as the miraculous 
endowed personage presented to us in the four Gospels. 

The first two chapters of this work give a sketch 
of conclusions formed in the manner above stated, 
from the study of the Old and New Testament, and of 
Josephus. It is admitted that some parts of this sketch 
cannot claim a higher character than that of plausible 
conjecture. The authority of the main sources of in- 
formation being shaken, it is evident that conjecture is, 
in many cases, all to which the utmost research can 
attain. The whole is, however, expressed in the his- 
torical style, for the sake of simplicity ; consequently, 
when the reader meets with some assertions not suffi- 
ciently supported by the notes, his patience is entreated 
until he arrives at the chapters which follow. 



VI PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 

The field of investigation being of almost intermi- 
nable extent, the object has been rather to select a few 
striking points of inquiry than to exhaust the subject ; 
many interesting points are therefore merely glanced 
at, and the volume is offered more as a collection of 
hints than as a complete treatise on the important 
subject which it approaches. 

The greater part of the work having been written be- 
fore reference was made to the commentators mentioned 
in the notes, the reader, who may be versed in biblical 
criticism, will have to excuse in some parts an uncon- 
sciousness that the same things had already been said 
by others. This applies especially to the chapters on 
Isaiah and Daniel, much of which the author has found 
to be nearly the same in substance as what had been 
said by Porphyry, Aben Esra, Kimchi, and Grotius. 
But the whole is suffered to remain, because some sug- 
gestions here offered differ much from the explanations 
of the above, and, it is believed, of all other commen- 
tators. The attention of the student of the prophecies 
is directed especially to the explanation suggested of 
the seventh chapter of Daniel. 

Although the belief in the miraculous origin of 
Christianity forms at present a prominent feature in 
the creeds of all sects of professing Christians, it would 
be an unnecessary and perhaps injudicious limitation to 
hold that the relinquishment of this belief is equivalent 
to an entire renunciation of the Christian religion. 
Whatever be men's conclusions concerning the much- 
debated question of the nature and powers of Jesus 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. Vll 

Christ, no conclusions of this kind need obstruct their 
perception of the general excellence of the moral system 
which is connected with his name, nor impede their 
acknowledgment of the beneficial influence which the 
Scriptures exercise over mankind, nor lead to hostility 
towards the ancient and useful institutions which the 
sanction of Christ and his followers has caused almost 
universally to accompany the admission of his religion. 
Most of the doctrines of Christianity are admitted to 
be so much in accordance with the purest dictates of 
natural reason, that, on recognizing the latter as the 
supreme guide, no violent disruption of the habits and 
associations of the religious world is necessary. The 
philosophizing tone adopted by many of the most dis- 
tinguished modern advocates of religion renders the 
transition easy from Christianity as a divine revelation 
to Christianity as the purest form yet existing of 
natural religion. The contemplation of the Creator 
may still be indulged, and lessons of morality and 
wisdom still sought, according to the forms which 
Christianity has consecrated. The transference of the 
sanction from a supposed revelation to natural reason 
will be so little prejudicial to these high exercises of 
the mind, that, on the contrary, it will extend their 
interest by allowing them wider scope, and by ren- 
dering them more susceptible of all the improvements 
which experience, circumstances, and growing intelli- 
gence, suggest. Christianity will no longer be fettered 
by the necessity of a continual adaptation to written 
precept, but will assume a position allowing it to ex- 



Vlli PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION, 

pand freely according to the wants of each successive 
age, and to advance with the advancement of man- 
kind. 

The author of this volume would therefore willingly 
have it considered as employed in the real service of 
Christianity, rather than as an attack upon it. Many 
doctrines, which were once thought to he essential 
parts of the system, have been successively dismissed 
into the class of its corruptions ; yet, after the wound 
occasioned by the separation has been healed, Chris- 
tianity has been found to remain still vigorous, and 
has even appeared more sightly as relieved from an 
excrescence. And now, if the progress of inquiry 
should lead men to carry the pruning-knife nearer to 
the root than they had at first contemplated, and to 
consign even the whole of the miraculous relations in 
the New Testament to the same list as the prodigies 
of Hindoo or Romish superstition, we may still find 
enough left in Christianity to maintain its name and 
power amidst growing knowledge and civilization. 
And this will be in that purer moral spirit, and those 
higher views of the nature of man, the progress of 
which, although naturally coincident with the advance- 
ment of the human mind, received so vigorous an 
impulse from the life of Jesus, that this spirit and 
these views have come to be indissolubly associated 
with the idea, and expressed under the name, of 
Christianity. Christianity, thus regarded as a system 
of elevated thought and feeling, will not be injured by 
being freed from those fables, and those views of local 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. IX 

or temporary interest, which hung about its origin. 
It will, on the contrary, be placed on a surer basis ; 
for it need no longer appeal for its support to the un- 
certain evidence of events which happened nearly two 
thousand years ago, a species of evidence necessarily 
attainable only by long and laborious research, im- 
practicable to most men, and unsatisfactory and harass- 
ing even to those who have most means of pursuing 
it ; but it will rest its claims on an evidence clearer, 
simpler, and always at hand, — the thoughts and feel- 
ings of the human mind itself. Thus, whatever in it is 
really true and excellent, will meet with a ready attes- 
tation in every breast, and, in the improvement of the 
human mind, find an ever-increasing evidence. 

November, 1838. 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



A re-perusal of the New Testament several times 
^ince the first edition of this work appeared, and some 
further acquaintance with modern criticism on the 
subject, have not led the writer to alter the leading 
conclusions then arrived at. But some important 
points are now dwelt upon more at length, and ad- 
ditional notes and quotations given where the original 
most required them. 

In the first two chapters, it is endeavoured to mark 
more clearly the relationship of the Christians to the 
Essenes and Galileans. In the chapters on the four 
Gospels, an attempt is made to define more distinctly 
the characteristics of each; and, since to ascertain 
how they were formed is one of the most vital, whilst 
it is the most difficult and laborious, part of the sub- 
ject, the writer's own remarks are accompanied by 
notes showing the conclusions of some of the most 
recent German critics, a class of writers who have 
worked out this subject with an industry and acuteness 
which have probably attained to all the certainty of 
which the case admits. 

In chapters vii. ix. xvi. there are some additions on 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. XI 

the events immediately following the crucifixion, on 
the miracles of Jesus, and on his character. 

Since the first edition of this work was published, 
the writer has read the celebrated Leben Jesu of Dr. 
Strauss, which contains a most minute and searching 
analysis of the various stories, anecdotes, and sayings, 
which mainly make up the Gospels ; and especially a 
careful weighing of the probable proportion of reality 
and fiction in each. The present work embracing a 
wider scope, that important part of the subject oc- 
cupies only a few chapters, which remain with little 
alteration. In only a few cases, and by way of ex- 
ample, the subject is pursued at some length; in 
others, for the sake of brevity, conclusions are given 
without arguments. The reader, who may feel that 
more satisfaction is justly demanded on this head, will 
share the pleasure which the writer felt on becoming 
acquainted with the elaborate and erudite work referred 
to. There the most extensive theological reading is 
brought to bear upon the subject ; and this, combined 
with unwearied patience, and unvarying philosophical 
candour, leaves a strong conviction that the Gospels 
have been examined by minds the most competent as 
well as willing to give them a full and fair trial. # 



* It came to the knowledge of the writer in the year 1839, that a trans- 
lation of his first edition had been undertaken at Stutgard, accompanied by 
an introduction from the pen of Dr. Strauss, to whom he was then a total 
\ stranger, but who had seen a copy of the volume in the possession of one of 
^p his own English friends. The fact of the translation, and the contents of 
that introduction, must be highly gratifying to the author; yet in a higher 
degree they reflect praise on the eminent theologian himself, who could 



Xll PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 

The work of Dr. Strauss attributes, upon the whole, 
to the four Gospels, rather less of historical reality, 
(_and a larger proportion of the my thus and legend, 
than this volume. His opinions on the origin of the 
story of the resurrection, and his impressions of the 
views of Jesus, are somewhat different. He hesitates 
to ascribe to Jesus the political aim included in the 
Jewish notion of the Messiahship, but seems inclined 
to consider his views directed exclusively to spiritual 
dominion.* The most important agreement is that 
his investigations tend to dismiss all supernaturalism 
from the history of Jesus. The writer learns from 
friends well acquainted with the progress of theological 
learning in Germany, that the most recent opinions of 
many eminent scholars there are in the same direction. 
Comparing this tendency in the land of biblical criti- 
cism with the large, probably increasing, amount of 
unbelief in all classes around us, we are compelled to 
anticipate that the time is near, and that the spread of 
independent thinking will render it nearer, when no 
Christianity will remain but such as expresses the 
results of the higher moral powers implanted in man 
by nature. 



take so sincere an interest in a recent English work, which at that time 
had found but few readers in its own country. 

A review of this German translation appeared in the Allgemeine Litte- 
ratur-Zeitung of Halle, signed "Schnitzer." Some of the enlargements 
in the present edition partly meet the able and candid criticism which that 
article contained. 

* This is gathered from § lxiv., French translation of the Third Edition, 
by E. Littre. 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. Xlll 

Whether the degree of merit, which Christianity 
possesses in this sense, be so high as to entitle it to be 
considered pre-eminently the religion of the wise and 
good, and to render the duration of this distinction 
probable during many future centuries, it is not pre- 
tended to decide in this work. The aim has been 
simply to investigate the historical origin of the reli- 
gion, uninfluenced by speculations on the consequences. 
Change of names would be a minor one ; a result of 
greater concern is the disturbance of cherished prin- 
ciples and feelings which, in the present juncture of 
the history of religion, the transition from supernatural 
creeds must to a large extent occasion ; and the con- 
templation of this imparts gravity to researches which 
at no very distant period may be generally smiled upon 
as both frivolous and antiquated. Yet the general 
conviction, that truth in the end must be beneficial, 
need not be shaken in this instance by an imagined 
foresight of some appalling consequences. The ob- 
servation of many readers will probably accord with 
that of the author, that the Deist is not wanting in 
thoughts which admit of the serene enjoyment of life, 
of fortitude in adversity, and of perseverance in unseen 
efforts to do good ; that neither Deism, Pantheism, nor 
even Atheism, indicate modes of thought incompatible 
with uprightness and benevolence ; and that the real or 
affected horror, which it is still a prevailing custom to 
exhibit towards these names, would be better reserved 
for those of the selfish, the cruel, the bigot, and other 
tormentors of mankind. Although that species of 



XIV PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 

philosophy which includes a religious faith, may, in 
the opinion of many, probably most, earnest thinkers, 
be supported by the furthest advances of the intellect, 
and also be allied with the purest pleasures of imagi- 
nation ; although it be productive of the most perma- 
nent mental tranquillity, and, in some extreme cases, 
may probably be indispensable to preserve fortitude; — 
yet a persuasion of the deep foundations on which the 
religious sentiments rest, and an appreciation of their 
value, require neither the expression nor the feeling of 
alienation towards those who do not share those sen- 
timents ; a moderate experience must convince us that 
theological belief, even of the simplest kind, and be- 
nevolence, do not necessarily exist in proportion to 
each other ; and that both a creed, and the want of 
one, may be met with in conjunction with that which 
irresistibly demands our sympathies, — a devotion to 
the cause of happiness on this earth. 

August, 1841. 



CONTENTS, 



PAGE 

CHAPTER I. 

Historical sketch, from the Babylonish captivity to the death of 
Jesus ............ 1 



CHAPTER II. 

Historical sketch continued to the end of the first century . .51 

CHAPTER III. 

On the date and credibility of the Gospel according to St. Matthew . 95 

CHAPTER IV. 

On the date and credibility of the Gospel according to St. Mark . .128 

CHAPTER V. 

On the date and credibility of the Gospel according to St. Luke . 152 

CHAPTER VI. 

On the date and credibility of the Gospel according to St. John . .177 

CHAPTER VII. 

Examination of the accounts of the Resurrection and Ascension . 204 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Remarks on the other miracles in the four Gospels . . . .251 

CHAPTER IX. 

General objections to the miracles of Jesus 285 

CHAPTER X. 

Remarks on the miracles in the Acts of the Apostles . . . 299 



XVI CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER XL 

On the evidence afforded to the miracles by the apostolic writings . 317 

CHAPTER XII. 
On the prophecies . 325 

CHAPTER XIII. 

On the parts of Isaiah supposed to relate to Christ .... 353 

CHAPTER XIV. 
On the book of Daniel . . . 370 

CHAPTER XV. 

Whether Jesus foretold his own death and resurrection . . . 404 

CHAPTER XVI. 

On the character, views, and doctrine of Jesus . . , . .410 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Comparison of the precepts of Jesus with the Jewish writings . .452 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Concluding reflections 476 

APPENDIX 491 



AN INQUIRY 



CONCERNING THE 



ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY 



CHAPTER I. 

HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY 
TO THE DEATH OF JESUS. 

The Jewish nation, which was of considerable political im- 
portance in the days of David and Solomon, was much 
weakened, during the reigns of Ahaz and his successors, by 
the encroachments of the Assyrians, and extinguished, for a 
time, as a political power, by the conquest of Jerusalem by 
Nebuchadnezzar. [B. C. 588.] 

But the national feeling in a people of 800 years' standing, 
of peculiar manners, associations, and religious worship, sur- 
vives the capture of their towns ; and, during each successive 
transportation of their tribes [B. C. 725-588], and their sub- 
sequent captivity at Babylon, the Jews consoled themselves 
with the hope of a speedy restoration to their own land.* 

* Jer. xxxii. 15, For thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Houses, and fields, 
and vineyards, shall be possessed again in this land, xxxiii. 7, And I will 
cause the captivity of Juclah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will 
build them as at first, xlvi. 27, But fear not thou, O my servant Jacob, 
and be not dismayed, O Israel ; for behold I will save thee from afar off, 
and thy seed from the land of their captivity, and Jacob shall return, and 



2 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH 

They compensated themselves for their present insignificance 
with the expectation of future greatness ; * and their very 
sufferings were made a theme soothing to their vanity, by 
being considered, not as the effect of superior power on the 
part of their enemies, but as a paternal and corrective chas- 
tisement from their own God.f 

[B. C. 536.] "When Cyrus permitted the small remnant 
of pure Jews to re-occupy their own land, and to re-build 
their temple and city, J their most extravagant hopes seemed 
about to be realized. A new sera opened upon them ; § they 
were in the way to take rank again amongst the nations ; 
and if this could be attained out of a state of general servi- 

be in rest and at ease, and none shall make him afraid. (1. 19 ; Ezek. 
xxxvii. ; xxxix. 25 ; xxvii. 25 ; Micah ii. 12.) Tobit xiv. 5, Afterwards 
they shall return from all places of their captivity, and build up Jerusalem 
gloriously, and the house of God shall be built in it for ever, with a 
glorious building, as the prophets have spoken thereof. 

* Obadiah 17, But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance — and there 
shall be holiness, and the house of Jacob shall possess their posses- 
sions; IS, And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Esau 
for stubble ; — 21, And saviours shall come upon Mount Zion to judge the 
Mount of Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord's. Micah iv. ; Micah 
v. 8, And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles as a lion 
among the beasts of the forest. Isaiah xlix. 18-26 ; Ix. 12, For the nation 
and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish : yea those nations shall be 
utterly wasted . . . The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bend- 
ing unto thee ; and they shall call thee the city of the Lord, the Zion of 
the Holy One of Israel . . . thy people also shall be ail righteous ; they shall 
inherit the land for ever ... a little one shall become a thousand, and a 
small one a strong nation ; I the Lord will hasten it in its time. 

f Ezekiel, passim, xxxix. 23 ; Micah i. 5, For the transgression of Jacob 
is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. Isaiah xlii. 24, "Who 
gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers 9 Did not the Lord, he 
against whom we have sinned ? xlvii. 6, I was wroth with my people, and 
have given them into thine (Chaldea's) hand, xlviii. 10, Behold I have 
refined thee (Jacob), I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. Lam. 
iv. 22 ; Hosea xiv. 1 ; Daniel ix. 11. 

X By comparing Ezra i. 3, with 1 Esdrasiv. 63, it is seen that the decree 
of Cyrus was not understood as limited to the temple. 

§ Haggai ii. 9, The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the 
former. Zech. i. 16-21 ; ii. 10-13. 






CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OF JESUS. 3 

tude, a patriotic Jew might easily believe his nation destined, 
in the end, to eclipse Egypt and Assyria. * 

Accordingly, in their writings abont the time of the re- 
storation, (and a large proportion of those called the prophets 
appear to be nearly of that date,)t these topics occnr in 
almost every page. The imagination and literary talents of 
the Jews had been much developed by their contact with the 
Chaldees and Persians, and naturally displayed themselves 
chiefly on such an exciting theme. Besides, the Jewish 
leaders would encourage their poets and orators to choose 
such subjects, in order to animate the people under diffi- 
culties. 

It is not surprising, then, to find in the poetic writings of 
the Old Testament extravagant descriptions of a kingdom of 
Israel which should cover the earth, { and of a great prince 
who should restore the throne of David. § The beautiful an- 



* Isaiah xiv. 2, Israel shall take them captive, whose captives they were ; 
and they shall rule over their oppressors. 

f Haggai, B.C. 520; Zechariah, B. C. 519. Many parts of the older 
prophets appear to be interpolations of the same time. (See Ezek. xxxix. 
23-29.) In chap. xiii. reasons will be given for considering Isaiah xl. chap. 
to the end, as written in the time of Cyrus. 

X Haggai ii. 22 ; Zech. ii. 21 ; Micah iv. 5 ; Isaiah ii. 2 ; Dan. vii. 13, 
14. 

§ Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24, And I will set up one shepherd over them, and 
he shall feed them, even my servant David ; he shall feed them, and he 
shall be their shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant 
David a prince among them, xxxvii. 22-26, And I will make them one 
nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king 
to them all ; and they shall be no more two nations . . . and they shall dwell 
in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, and their children's 
children for ever, and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. 
(Kimchi says upon this text, The King Messiah is called David, because he 
will be of the seed of David.) 

Jer. xxiii. 5, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto 
David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall 
execute judgment and justice in the earth. 

Isaiah xxxii. 1, 18, Behold a king shall reign in righteousness. . .and 

b2 



4 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH 

ticipations which, under various forms, have arisen in widely 
remote nations, of the future perfection of the earth,* were, 
in the minds of the Jews, blended in a peculiar manner with 
the hopes and fortunes of Israel. On this subject each pro- 
phet or poet indulged in his own fancies ; but one prevalent 
notion seems to have been, that this kingdom would be esta- 
blished, and their final triumph over the nations effected, not 
so much by military means, in which they were obviously 
deficient, as by some special intervention of their protector, 
the God of Israel. It was supposed that the presence of the 
Deity would be then made manifest to them in a more visible 
manner than had been known hitherto, and that signs an 
wonders, more impressive and more public than those grante 
in the days of Moses, would at last proclaim to the whol 
world the connexion subsisting between God and his chosen 
people. f Hence this state of things came to be called 



: 

le 



: 



my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwell- 
ings. 

Jer. xxiii. 17, For thus saith the Lord, David shall never want a man 
sit upon the throne of Israel. 

The kings of Judah were called the Lord's anointed ; therefore the ex- 
pected restorer of their throne came to be described emphatically as the 
Anointed or Messiah : and it became a favourite literary amusement with 
the Jews to find passages of their scriptures applicable to him. To find ora- 
cles of the future was more interesting than to investigate critically the his- 
tory of the past. Hence many passages were applied to the Messiah which 
originally referred to real personages, to personifications of their nation, or 
to subjects still more remote. Schoettgen gives a minute account of all 
the texts interpreted by the ancient Rabbis concerning the Messiah. Horse 
Heb. lib. 2. 

* It is not likely that Virgil had read Isaiah ; yet the resemblance be- 
tween the ideas in his Pollio and those of the Hebrew poet has struck all 
readers. In the Voluspa, a Scandinavian poem quoted in the 4th fable of 
the Edda, there is an end of the ages and a conflagration of the world, suc- 
ceeded by a new earth of eternal verdure and happiness. 

f Haggai ii. 6, 7, For thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Yet once it is a little 
while, and I will shake the heaven and the earth, and the sea, and the dry 
land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come, 
and I will fill this house with glory Zech. ix. 13, 14, When I have bent 



CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OP JESUS. 5 

popularly the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Hea- 
ven.* 

The captivity and restoration were thought of less and less 
as events rolled on; but the writings which they had occa- 
sioned remained amongst the Jews, a conspicuous part of 
their scanty literature. There is, indeed, in them so much 
of rich imagery and wild beauty, that they are to this day 
read with pleasure by those who look upon them merely as 
poetical relics ; it is no wonder, then, that they should have 
continued for centuries in the hearts and mouths of all 
patriotic Jews, and that, when sufficiently veiled by antiquity, 
the prophets, as well as the law, should have been reverenced 
as divine oracles. 

Events, however, did not correspond with these prophecies 
of Jewish greatness. With slow and painful efforts their 
temple and city were rebuilt under the leadership of Ze- 
rubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah [B. C. 536 — 445] ; but they 
remained insignificant as a nation, and were successively 
tributary to the Persians and Macedonians, until the revolution 



Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, 
against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man ; 
and the Lord shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the 
lightning ; and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with 
whirlwinds of the south. Zech. xiv. 3, 4, Then shall the Lord go forth, and 
fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And 
his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before 
Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst 
thereof toward the east, and toward the west, and there shall be a very 
great valley ; and half the mountain shall remove toward the north, and 
half of it toward the south. Isaiah xxiv. 23, Then the moon shall be con- 
founded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount 
Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously. See also Zech. 
xii. 4-8 ; Zephaniah hi. 8-20; Malachi iii. iv. ; Joel i. 15, ii. 27-32, hi. 1, 
2, 9-21 ; Hosea ii. 21-23 ; Ezek. xxxix. 21, 22. 

* Zech. xiv. 9, And the Lord shall be king over all the earth. Ezek. 
xxxvii. 23, So they shall be my people, and I will be their God. xxxiv. 30, 
31 ; Zech. viii. 8. 



D HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH 

effected by Judas Maccabseus. [B. C. 166.] Under him and 
the subsequent able princes of the Asmonsean race, they at- 
tained the rank of a respectable second-rate power, although 
inferior to the adjoining kingdoms of Syria and Egypt. But 
the Asmonsean dynasty grew weak from internal dissension ; 
and during the quarrel between Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, 
Jerusalem was taken by Pompey, who first imposed upon the 
Jews a Roman tribute. [B. C. 63.] Under the patronage of 
the Romans, Herod the Idumean obtained the sovereignty, 
[B. C. 40,] to the exclusion of the native Asmonsean family; 
and, although generally hateful to the Jews as a heathen and 
usurper, maintained by a vigorous government the respect- 
ability of the nation. After his death, [B. C. 3,] however, 
the Jews were compelled to make another step towards na- 
tional servitude, by the appointment of Roman governors of 
Judea, [A. D. 6 or 7,] who exercised a jurisdiction superior 
to that of the family of Herod, and of the Jewish sanhedrim. 

Throughout all these changes, the Kingdom of Heaven 
may be seen to have been from time to time a popular idea,* 






* Tobit xiii. 15, 18, Let my soul bless God the great king. For Jeru 
salem shall be built up with sapphires, and emeralds, and precious stone 
thy walls, and towers, and battlements, with pure gold. And the streets of 
Jerusalem shall be paved with beryl, and carbuncle, and the stones of 
Ophir; and all her streets shall say Alleluia! 

Josephus says that the Pharisees persuaded Pheroras, Herod's brother, 
that he was the predicted king, who would have all things in his power 
Antiq. xvii. 4. About B. C. 4. 

Targum Micah iv. 7, (written probably in the century before Christ,) 
And the kingdom of Heaven shall be revealed to them on Mount Zion, 
from now and for ever. 

In the preaching of John the Baptist (Matt. iii. 2) the Kingdom is intro- 
duced without any explanation, as a well-known idea. 

Josephus, War, vi. ch. 6. " What did most elevate them in undertaking 
this war [A. D. 66-70] was an ambiguous oracle found in their sacred 
writings, how about that time one from their country should become 
governor of the habitable earth." The testimonies of Tacitus and Sue- 
tonius might be founded on this passage of Josephus. 



f 



CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OF JESUS. 7 

and during the Roman encroachments, it revived in full force. 
The romantic exploits of Maccabseus had renewed the Jews' 
spirit of independence, and encouraged the hope that the holy 
nation might, at length, in its turn, succeed Assyria, Persia, 
and Macedonia, in the empire of the world. The period 
mentioned in an obscure prophecy relating to the Messiah 
appeared to expire near the close of the Asmonean dynasty ; * 
but after waiting through the long reign of Herod, the people 
of God seemed about to pass into a more permanent servitude 
to the Gentiles. The Jewish princes and aristocracy were 
easily soothed into submission to their powerful masters, who 
allowed them to retain many of their privileges ; but the in- 
dignation of the populace broke out in continual tumults and 
insurrections, which the Roman governor, aided by the priests 
and nobles, usually quickly suppressed. In one of these, 
soon after the accession of Archelaus, the multitude of Gali- 
leans, Idumeans, and provincials from beyond Jordan, as- 
sembled at Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost, succeeded in 
distressing the Roman legion under Sabinus to such a 
degree, as to give the idea that by a simultaneous effort the 
Romans might be overcome. This attempt was followed by 
the revolts of Judas the son of Ezekias at Sepphoris in 
Galilee, of Simon the slave of Herod, of Athronges, and 
many other adventurers, assuming the title of king, which 
the populace were ready to allow to almost any one having 



* The seventy weeks of Daniel, ix. 24, ended B. C. 46, counting from 
the decree of Cyrus. This would lead the Jews about that time to look 
more earnestly for their Messiah. The direct evidence of this application 
of the prophecy at that time is not very ample ; but Schoettgen has collected 
enough from the Talmudists to strengthen very materially the vague tes- 
timony of Josephus, and the intrinsic probability. Sanhedrin, fol. 97. i. 
" Our Rabbins delivered ; In that week, when the Son of David cometh, and 
in his first year, that will be fulfilled which is written Amos iv. 7, &c." See 
De Messia, in Dan. ix. 24. 



8 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH 

the courage to claim it. * But the most remarkable insur- 
rection was that of Judas the Galilean or Gaulonite, who 
persuaded the Galileans to resist an extraordinary taxation 
imposed by Cyrenius, the Roman Governor of Syria. 

The account which we have of Judas the Galilean comes 
from Josephus, who, being himself a noble and a conserva- 
tive, disliked all attempts at insurrection and innovation; 
yet through his angry comments it is easy to perceive that 
Judas was a man of great talent, and that he left a deep im- 
pression on the minds of his countrymen ; for he is charac- 
terized as being not only the leading revolter against the 
Romans, but also the head of a fourth philosophic sect, 
which occasioned the alteration of the customs of Moses,t 
and, though agreeing with most of the pharisaic notions of 
religion, had an inviolable attachment to liberty, saying that 
God was to be their only ruler and lord. Judas was there- 
fore both a political and religious reformer ; and as his sen- 
timents spread extensively among the Galileans, these pro- 
vincials came to be looked upon with suspicion by the Ro- 
mans for their disaffection to the tribute, and by the other 
Jews for their liberalism or heresy in religion. 

Even before the time of Judas, the Jews had begun to 



* " And now Judea was full of robberies ; and as the several companies 
of the seditious lighted upon any one to head them, he was created a king 
immediately, in order to do mischief to the public." — Ant. xvii. 10. 

f Less stress should be laid upon this as a characteristic of the party of 
Judas, than upon the next-mentioned doctrine. The passage of Josephus, 
which will be quoted, might signify that Judas occasioned the alteration of 
the ancient customs, indirectly, by the fatal consequences of his other main 
doctrines, rather than by inculcating directly the abrogation of the Mosaic 
law. Yet the accusation itself, and the complaint of the great novelty of 
Judas's teaching, may warrant the conjecture that there was something in it 
which was considered as opposed to the permanence of the Mosaic code. 
The conduct of the Zealots, Sicarii, and other ferocious bandits, into whom 
the followers of Judas degenerated in later times, was marked by frequent 
instances of disrespect to the law. War, iv. 3, 6; iv. 5, 5; iv. 6, 3; vii. 8, 1. 



CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OF JESUS. 9 

allow themselves free discussion on the subject of their reli- 
gion. The system of Moses, intended for a secluded people, 
was found to be inconsistent, in many points, with the spirit 
of the age, when they were forced into continual contact with 
other nations. From the restoration of the laws of Moses 
by Maccabseus, all the efforts of the strict Mosaic party were 
unable to stop the influx of the customs and notions of the 
Greeks, and to prevent the admixture of Gentile philoso- 
phies with the law and the prophets. As early as in the 
priesthood of Jonathan Apphus, [B. C. 161,] the Jews were 
divided into three principal sects of Sadducees, Pharisees, 
and Essenes, of which the latter, consisting chiefly of the 
lower ranks, presents a remarkable picture of simplicity and 
moral purity, tinctured by the austere spirit of monachism. 
The principles of benevolence, morality, and religion, being 
implanted in the nature of man, it is natural that some of 
those combinations for common objects which men love to 
form together, should be directed to the cultivation and ad- 
vancement of these principles. Hence there have frequently 
been seen, in different ages of the world, societies attempting 
to exhibit schools of perfect virtue, and to attain the highest 
possible degrees of temperance, benevolence, and piety. In 
the Essene sect we see an example of such a society in- 
fluenced by a religion of Monotheism, and by the national 
literature already described. The condition of the three 
sects, and especially of the Essenes, forms such an interest- 
ing and important feature in the Jewish history at the period 
we are now arrived at, that it is worth while to transcribe 
the accounts of them given by Josephus and Philo. 

Josephus says, (War, ii. ch. 7,) " For there are three phi- 
losophical sects among the Jews. The followers of the first 
of whom are the Pharisees, of the second the Sadducees, and 
the third sect, which pretends to a severer discipline, is 



10 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH 

called Essenes. These are Jews by birth, and they cherish 
mutual love beyond other men. They reject pleasure as 
evil ; and they look upon temperance and a conquest over the 
passions as the greatest virtue. There prevails among them 
a contempt of marriage; but they receive the children of 
others, and educate them as their own, while yet tender and 
susceptible of instruction. They do not indeed abolish the 
marriage institution, as being necessaiy to perpetuate the 
succession of mankind; but they guard against the immo- 
desty of the women, who, they think, in no instance preserve 
their fidelity to one man. 

" The Essenes despise riches, and are so liberal as to excite 
our admiration. Nor can any be found amongst them who 
is more wealthy than the rest ; for it is a law with them, that 
those who join their order should distribute their possessions 
among the members, the property of each being added to 
that of the rest, as being all brethren. They deem oil as a 
pollution, and wipe it off, should any inadvertently touch 
them, for they think it an ornament to be plain, and always 
to wear white apparel. They appoint stewards to superin- 
tend the common interests ; and these have no other em- 
ployment than to consult the good of each member without 
distinction. 

" This sect is not confined to one city, but many of them 
dwell in every city, and if any of their sect come from other 
places, what they have lies open for them, just as if it were 
their own; and they go in to such as they never knew before, 
as if they had been ever so long acquainted with them. For 
which reason they carry nothing with them when they travel 
into remote parts, though still they take then weapons with 
them for fear of thieves. Accordingly there is, in every city 
where they live, one appointed particularly to take care of 
strangers, and to provide garments and other necessaries for 



CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OF JESUS. 11 

them. But the habit and management of their bodies is 
such as children use who are in fear of their masters. Nor 
do they allow of the change of garments, or of shoes, till they 
be first entirely torn to pieces, or worn out by time. Nor 
do they either buy or sell anything to one another; but 
every one of them gives what he hath to him that wanteth 
it, and receives from him again in lieu of it what may be 
convenient for himself : and although there be no requital 
made, they are fully allowed to take what they want of 
whomsoever they please. 

"And as for their piety towards God, it is very extraordi- 
nary ; for before sun-rising they speak not a word about pro- 
fane matters, but put up certain prayers which they have 
received from their forefathers, as if they made a suppli- 
cation for its rising. After this, every one of them is sent 
away by their curators, to exercise some of their arts 
wherein they are skilled, in which they labour with great 
diligence till the fifth hour. After which they assemble 
themselves together again into one place; and when they 
have clothed themselves in white veils, they then bathe their 
bodies in cold water. And after this purification is over, they 
every one meet together in an apartment of their own, into 
which it is not permitted to any of another sect to enter ; 
while they go, after a pure manner, into the dining-room, as 
into a certain holy temple, and quietly set themselves down ; 
upon which the baker lays them loaves in order ; the cook 
also brings a single plate of one sort of food, and sets it be- 
fore every one of them ; but a priest says grace before meat, 
and it is unlawful for any one to taste of the food before grace 
is said. The same priest, when he hath dined, says grace 
again after meat : and when they begin and when they end, 
they praise God, as him that bestows their food upon them ; 
after which they lay aside their (white) garments, and betake 



12 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH 

themselves to their labours again till the evening ; then they 
return home to supper, after the same manner ; and if there 
be any strangers there, they sit down with them. Nor is 
there ever any clamour or disturbance to pollute their house, 
but they give every one leave to speak in their turn ; which 
silence, thus kept in their house, appears to foreigners like 
some tremendous mystery, the cause of which is that per- 
petual sobriety they exercise, and the same settled measure 
of meat and drink that is allotted to them, and that such as 
is abundantly sufficient for them. 

" And truly as for other things, they do nothing but ac- 
cording to the injunction of their curators : only these two 
things are done among them at every one's own free will, 
which are, to assist those who want it, and to show mercy; 
for they are permitted of their own accord to afford succour 
to such as deserve it when they stand in need of it, and to 
bestow food on those who are in distress ; but they cannot 
give anything to their kindred without the curators. They 
dispense their anger after a just manner, and restrain their 
passion. They are eminent for fidelity, and are the ministers 
of peace ; whatsoever they say also is firmer than an oath : 
but swearing is avoided by them, and they esteem it worse 
than perjury; for they say, that he who cannot be believed 
without (swearing by) God is already condemned. They also 
take great pains in studying the writings of the ancients, and 
choose out of them what is most for the advantage of their 
soul and body ; and they inquire after such roots and medici- 
nal stones as may cure their distempers. 

" But now if any one hath a mind to come over to their 
sect, he is not immediately admitted, but he is prescribed 
the same method of living which they use for a year, while he 
continues excluded ; and they give him a small hatchet, and 
the forementioned girdle, and the white garment. And 



CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OF JESUS. 13 

when he hath given evidence, during that time, that he can 
observe their temperance, he approaches nearer to their way 
of living, and is made a partaker of the waters of purification : 
yet is he not even now admitted to live with them ; for after 
this demonstration of his fortitude, his temper is tried two 
years more, and, if he appears to be worthy, they then admit 
him into their society. And before he is allowed to touch 
their common food, he is obliged to take tremendous oaths, 
that, in the first place, he will exercise piety towards God ; 
and then that he will observe justice towards men ; and that 
he will do no harm to any one, either of his own accord, or 
by the command of others ; that he will always hate the 
wicked, and be assistant to the righteous ; that he will ever 
show fidelity to all men, and especially to those in authority, 
because no one obtains the government without God's assist- 
ance ; and if he be in authority, he will at no time whatever 
abuse his authority, nor endeavour to outshine his subjects, 
either in his garments or any other finery ; that he will be per- 
petually a lover of truth, and propose to himself to reprove 
those that tell lies; that he will keep his hands clear from theft, 
and his soul from unlawful gains ; and that he will neither con- 
ceal any thing from those of his own sect, nor discover any of 
their doctrines to others, no, not though any one should com- 
pel him so to do at the hazard of his life. Moreover he 
swears to communicate their doctrines to no one any other- 
wise than as he received them himself; that he will abstain 
from robbery, and will equally preserve the books belonging 
to their sect, and the names of the angels. These are the 
oaths by which they secure their proselytes to themselves. 

" But for those that are caught in any heinous sins, they 
cast them out of their society ; and he who is thus separated 
from them does often die after a miserable manner; for as 
he is bound by the oath he hath taken, and by the customs 



14 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH 

he hath been engaged in, he is not at liberty to partake of 
that food that he meets with elsewhere, but is forced to eat 
grass, and to famish his body with hunger till he perish ; for 
which reason they receive many of them again when they are 
at the last gasp, out of compassion to them, as thinking the 
miseries they have endured till they came to the very brink 
of death to be a sufficient punishment for the sins they had 
been guilty of. 

" But in the judgments they exercise they are most accu- 
rate and just ; nor do they pass sentence by the votes of a 
court that is fewer than a hundred. And as to what is once 
determined by that number, it is unalterable. What they 
most of all honour, after God himself, is the name of their 
legislator, whom, if any one blaspheme, he is punished capi- 
tally. They also think it a good thing to obey their elders, 
and the major part. Accordingly, if ten of them be sitting 
together, no one of them will speak while the other nine are 
against it. Moreover, they are stricter than any other of the 
Jews in resting from their labours on the seventh day; for 
they not only get their food ready the day before, that they 
may not be obliged to kindle a fire on that day, but they will 
not remove any vessel out of its place. 

" Now, after the time of their preparatory trial is over, 
they are parted into four classes ; and so far are the juniors 
inferior to the seniors, that if the seniors should be touched 
by the juniors, they must wash themselves, as if they had 
intermixed themselves with the company of a foreigner. 
They are long-lived also ; insomuch that many of them live 
above a hundred years, by means of the simplicity of their 
diet ; nay, as I think, by means of the regular course of life 
they observe also. They contemn the miseries of life, and 
are above pain, by the generosity of their mind. And as for 
death, if it will be for their glory, they esteem it better than 



CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OF JESUS. 15 

living always ; and indeed our war with the Romans gave 
abundant evidence what great sonls they had in their trials, 
wherein, although they were tortured and distorted, burnt 
and torn to pieces, and went through all kinds of instruments 
of torment, that they might be forced either to blaspheme 
their legislator, or to eat what was forbidden them, yet they 
could not be made to do either of them, no, nor once to natter 
their tormentors, or to shed a tear; but they smiled in their 
very pains, and laughed those to scorn who inflicted the 
torments upon them, and resigned up their souls with great 
alacrny, as expecting to receive them again. 

" For their doctrine is this : That bodies are corruptible, 
and that the matter they are made of is not permanent ; but 
that the souls are immortal, and continue for ever ; and that 
they come out of the most subtile air, and are united to their 
bodies as in prisons, into which they are drawn by a certain 
natural enticement ; but that when they are set free from 
the bonds of the flesh, they then, as released from a long 
bondage, rejoice and mount upward. And this is like the 
opinion of the Greeks, that good souls have their habitations 
beyond the ocean, in a region that is neither oppressed with 
storms of rain or snow, or with intense heat, but that this 
place is such as is refreshed by the gentle breathing of a west 
wind, that is perpetually blowing from the ocean ; while they 
allot to bad souls a dark and tempestuous den, full of never- 
ceasing punishments. And indeed the Greeks seem to me 
to have followed the same notion, when they allot the islands 
of the blessed to their brave men, whom they call heroes and 
demi-gods ; and to the souls of the wicked, the region of the 
ungodly, in Hades, where their fables relate that certain 
persons, such as Sisyphus, and Tantalus, and Ixion, and 
Tityus, are punished ; which is built on this first supposition, 
that souls are immortal; and thence are those exhortations 



16 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH 






to virtue and dehortations from wickedness collected ; where- 
by good men are bettered in the conduct of their life, by the 
hope they have of reward after their death, and whereby the 
vehement inclinations of bad men to vice are restrained by 
the fear and expectation they are in, that, although they 
should lie concealed in this life, they should suffer immortal 
punishment after their death. These are the divine doc- 
trines of the Essenes about the soul, which lay an un- 
avoidable bait for such as have once had a taste of their 
philosophy. 

" There are also those among them who undertake to fore- 
tell things to come by reading the holy books, and using 
several sorts of purifications, and being perpetually conver- 
sant in the discourses of the prophets • and it is but seldom 
that they miss in their predictions. 

" Moreover, there is another order of Essenes, who agree 
with the rest as to their way of living, and customs, and laws, 
but differ from them in the point of marriage, as thinking 
that by not marrying they cut off the principal part of human 
life, which is the prospect of succession ; nay, rather, that if 
all men should be of the same opinion, the whole race of 
mankind would fail." 

Josephus, in another place, gives a concise account of the 
Essenes, thus : — 

" The doctrine of the Essenes is this : That all things are 
best ascribed to God. They teach the immortality of souls, 
and esteem that the rewards of righteousness are to be earn- 
estly striven for ; and when they send what they have dedi- 
cated to God into the temple, they do not offer sacrifices, 
because they have more pure lustrations of their own ; on 
which account they are excluded from the common court of 
the temple, but offer their sacrifices themselves ; yet is their 
course of life better than that of other men, and they entirely 



CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OF JESUS. 17 

addict themselves to husbandry. It also deserves our admi- 
ration, how much they exceed all other men that addict 
themselves to virtue, and this in righteousness ; and indeed 
to such a degree, that as it hath never appeared among any 
other men, neither Greeks, nor barbarians, no, not for a little 
time, so hath it endured a long while among them. This is 
demonstrated by that institution of theirs, which will not 
suffer anything to hinder them from having all things in 
common; so that a rich man enjoys no more of his own 
wealth than he who hath nothing at all. There are about 
four thousand men that live in this way, and neither marry 
wives, nor are desirous to keep servants, as thinking the 
latter tempts men to be unjust, and the former gives the 
handle to domestic quarrels ; but as they live by themselves, 
they minister one to another. They also appoint certain 
stewards to receive the incomes of their revenues, and of the 
fruits of the ground - such as are good men and priests, who 
are to get their corn and their food ready for them. They 
none of them differ from others of the Essenes in their way 
of living, but do the most resemble those Dacse who are called 
Polistse (dwellers in cities)." — Antiq. xviii. c. 1. 

Philo gives a more minute account of the Essenes, and 
in a still more panegyrical style. The following are a few 
extracts : — 

" Palestine and Syria are not unproductive of honourable 
and good men, but are occupied by numbers, not inconsider- 
able, compared even with the very populous nation of the 
Jews. These, exceeding four thousand, are called Essenes, 
which name, though not, in my opinion, formed by strict 
analogy, corresponds in Greek to the word ( holy/ For they 
have attained the highest holiness in the worship of God, and 
that not by sacrificing animals, but by cultivating purity of* 
heart. They live principally in villages. Some cultivate the 



18 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH 

ground ; others pursue the arts of peace, and such employ- 
ments as are beneficial to themselves without injury to their 
neighbours. They are the only people who, though destitute 
of money and possessions, felicitate themselves as rich, deem- 
ing riches to consist in frugality and contentment. Amoug 
them no one manufactures darts, arrows, or weapons of war. 
They decline trade, commerce, and navigation, as incentives 
to covetousness ; nor have they any slaves among them, but 
all are free, and all in their turn administer to others. They 
condemn the owners of slaves as tyrants, who violate the 
principles of justice and equality. 

" As to learning, they leave that branch of it which is 
called logic, as not necessary to the acquisition of virtue, to 
fierce disputants about words ; and cultivate natural philoso- 
phy only so far as respects the existence of God and the 
creation of the universe : other parts of natural knowledge 
they give up to vain and subtle metaphysicians, as really sur- 
passing the powers of man. But moral philosophy they 
eagerly study, conformably to the established laws of their 
country, the excellence of which the human mind can hardly 
comprehend without the inspiration of God. 

" These laws they study at all times, but more especially 
on the Sabbath. Regarding the seventh day as holy, they 
abstain on it from all other works, and assemble in those 
sacred places which are called Synagogues, arranging them- 
selves according to their age, the younger below his senior, 
with a deportment grave, becoming, and attentive. Then 
one of them, taking the Bible, reads a portion of it, the ob- 
scure parts of which are explained by another more skilful 
person. For most of the Scriptures they interpret in that 
symbolical sense which they have zealously copied from the 
patriarchs; and the subjects of instruction are piety, holi- 
ness, righteousness j domestic and political economy ; the 



CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OF JESUS. 19 

knowledge of things really good, bad, and indifferent \ what 
objects ought to be pursued, and what to be avoided. In 
discussing these topics, the ends which they have in view, 
and to which they refer as so many rules to guide them, are 
the love of God, the love of virtue, and the love of man. Of 
their love to God they give innumerable proofs by leading a 
life of continued purity, unstained by oaths and falsehoods, 
by regarding him as the author of every good, and the cause 
of no evil. They evince their attachment to virtue by their 
freedom from avarice, from ambition, from sensual pleasure ; 
by their temperance and patience ; by their frugality, sim- 
plicity, and contentment; by their humility, their regard 
to the laws, and other similar virtues. Their love to man is 
evinced by their benignity, their equity, and their liberality, 
of which it is not improper to give a short account, though 
no language can adequately describe it. 

"In the first place, there exists among them no house, 
however private, which is not open to the reception of all the 
rest, and not only the members of the same society assemble 
under the same domestic roof, but even strangers of the same 
persuasion have free admission to join them. There is but 
one treasure, whence all derive subsistence; and not only their 
provisions, but their clothes are common property. Such 
mode of living under the same roof, and of dieting at the 
same table, cannot, in fact, be proved to have been adopted 
by any other description of men. 

" The sick are not despised or neglected, but live in ease 
and affluence, receiving from the treasury whatever their dis- 
order or their exigencies require. The aged, too, among 
them, are loved, revered, and attended as parents by affec- 
tionate children ; and a thousand hands and hearts prop their 
tottering years with comforts of every kind. Such are the 
champions of virtue, which philosophy, without the parade of 



20 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH 

Grecian oratory, produces, proposing, as the end of their 
institutions, the performance of those laudable actions which 
destroy slavery, and render freedom invincible. 

" This effect is evinced by the many powerful men who rise 
against the Essenes in their own country, in consequence of 
differing from them in principles and sentiments. Some of 
these persecutors, being eager to surpass the fierceness of un- 
tamed beasts, omit no measure that may gratify their cruelty ; 
and they cease not to sacrifice whole flocks of those within 
their power ; or, like butchers, to tear their limbs in pieces, 
until themselves are brought to that justice, which super- 
intends the affairs of men. Yet not one of these furious 
persecutors has been able to substantiate any accusation 
against this band of holy men. On the other hand, all men, 
captivated by their integrity and honour, unite with them as 
those who truly enjoy the freedom and independence of na- 
ture, admiring their communion and liberality, which lan- 
guage cannot describe, and which is the surest pledge of a 
perfect and happy life." 

Philo then describes the Essenes who embraced the con- 
templative life, and were called Therapeutse, or healers, because 
they professed to cure men's minds of vices and all disorders. 
" The persons who profess this art are seized by the love of 
heaven, being filled with enthusiasm to see the supreme ob- 
ject of desire. Thinking themselves already dead to the 
world, they desire only a blessed immortal existence. They 
appoint their heirs, and flee without a look behind, bidding 
farewell to brothers, sons, parents, and wives. They fix their 
habitations on the outside of cities, in gardens and villages, 
not from a religious hatred of mankind, but to avoid a per- 
nicious intercourse with those who differ from them in 
opinions and manners. This society now prevails throughout 
the habitable earth, but more particularly in Egypt, about 



CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OF JESUS. 21 

Alexandria, and beyond the lake Maria. In each house is an 
apartment called a sanctuary or monastery, into which they 
bring only the laws, the divinely inspired prophets, the psalms, 
with such other writings as enlarge their knowledge and per- 
fect their piety. The idea of God is ever present to their 
thoughts, so that their imagination dwells, even in sleep, upon 
the beauty of his attributes ; many of them therefore deliver 
magnificent visions, suggested by their sacred philosophy in 
the hours of repose . . . They spend the whole interval from 
morning to evening in religious exercises, reading the holy 
scriptures, and unfolding their symbolical meaning according 
to that mode of interpretation which they have derived from 
their fathers. For the words, they conceive, though ex- 
pressing a literal sense, convey also a figurative sense ad- 
dressed to the understanding. They possess also the com- 
mentaries of those sages who, being the founders of the sect, 
left behind them numerous monuments of the allegorical 
style. These they use as models of allegory and composition ; 
and compose in honour of God psalms and hymns, in all 
the variety of measures which the solemnity of religion 
admits . . . On the seventh day, having collected into one 
assembly, one of the elders addresses them with grave looks, 
being not desirous to display powers of language, but to ex- 
press moral truths thoroughly digested, so as to remain 
lasting principles of conduct . . . They eat no food more costly 
than coarse bread seasoned with salt, to which the more de- 
licate add hyssop ; and drink no liquid but the clear water of 
the stream. Their chief object is to practise humility, being 
convinced that as falsehood is the root of pride, freedom from 
pride is the offspring of truth." * 



* Philo being an elderly man, and of established reputation for learning, 
when he was sent at the head of the embassy from the Alexandrian Jews to 
Caligula, A. D. 39, or 40, his book was most likely written before that time. It 



22 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH 

The chief features of the sect of the Pharisees were, their 
maintenance of the doctrine of future rewards and punish- 
ments, their adoption of an oral law preserved by tradition, 
in addition to the written law of Moses, and their profession 
of superior sanctity, evidenced by many self-imposed austeri- 
ties. In this last respect, they somewhat resembled the Es- 
senes ; but with this striking difference, that whilst the latter 
simple and lowly sect did in earnest sincerity renounce the 
more glaring vanities of life, and endeavour to find their highest 
good in the practice of virtue and the contemplation of 
heaven, the Pharisees skilfully made their spiritual ten- 
dencies the means of securing also more firmly the advantages 
of earth. During the greater part of the Asmonean reigns,* 
they had been the predominant party in the state, and the 
long tenure of power had rendered the tact of the politician 
a more real determining influence with them, than the zeal 
of the bigot, or at least accustomed them readily to restrain 
this zeal within the limits dictated by policy or interest. 
Hence the efforts of this party during the Roman domination 



is therefore not probable that he was describing the followers of Jesus 
under the title of Essenes. His description certainly cannot be limited to 
them ; for he evidently speaks of the Essenes as of an old established sect, 
and in one place mentions their ancient leaders. Josephus says, distinctly, 
that the sect existed in the time of Jonathan Apphus, B.C. 161. Antiq. 
xiii. 5, 9. Prideaux shows that they were probably descended from the 
Assideans, who devoted themselves voluntarily to the law. 1 Mac. ii. 42. 
Pliny speaks of the Essenes as of \ sect who renewed their numbers 
without marriage by the reception of new comers ; " and thus for several 
thousands of years, this people is perpetually propagated without any being 
born among them. "—Lib. 5, cap. 17. See Prid. Conn, part ii. book 5. All 
that has been said in later times concerning the Essenes and Therapeutee, 
proceeds from the extracts from Philo, Josephus, and Pliny. 

Among the Jews, a man was called old at the age of seventy. Pirke 
Aboth, cap. v. 

* In the first part of the reign of John Hyrcanus, Antiq. xiii. 10 ; in 
that of Alexander Jannaeus, xiii. 15; of Alexandra, xiii. 16; of Herod, 
xv. 1 ; xvii. 2 ; and doubtless to a great extent during the intervals. 






CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OF JESUS. 23 

were generally conservative ;* they might recognize as spe- 
culative truth whatever could be deduced from the law and 
the prophets, but took care not to be led by any arguments 
of this kind to countenance acts which in ordinary calculation 
might entail their own ruin and that of the nation.f 

The Sadducees seem to have been a small body of free- 
thinkers, amongst the highest ranks, unpopular on account 
of their tenets, or want of tenets, of haughty and uncon- 
ciliating demeanour, and almost devoid of either religious or 
political zeal. Hence, although sometimes from their rank 
occupying the highest dignities, their influence with the 
people was so feeble, that when men of this sect entered into 
public stations, they not unfrequently conformed in appear- 
ance to the Pharisaic sect. [Antiq. xviii. 1, 4 ; xiii. 10, 6.) 
They rejected all the unwritten traditions which the Pharisees 

* " The Pharisees are for the exercise of concord and regard for the pub- 
lic." — War, ii. 8, 14. They endeavoured to pacify the people under Floras. 
War, ii. 17, 3. 

f According to Josephus, himself a Pharisee, they were for the most part 
a very reasonable and moderate sect. " On account of which doctrines (fu- 
ture rewards and punishments) they are able greatly to persuade the body of 
the people ; and whatsoever they do about divine worship, prayers, and sa- 
crifices, they perform them according to their direction ; insomuch that the 
cities gave great attestations to them on account of their entire virtuous 
conduct, both in the actions of their lives, and their discourses also." — An-^ 
tiq. xviii. 1, 1. See also xiii. 10, 6. On one occasion however, viz. in re- 
lating an incident in the reign of Herod, he gives them a more unfavour- 
able character. " There was a certain sect of men that were Jews, who 
valued themselves highly upon the exact skill they had in the law of their 
fathers, and made men believe they were highly favoured by God, by whom 
this set of women were inveigled. They are those that are called the sect 
of the Pharisees, who were in a capacity of greatly opposing kings. A 
cunning sect they were, and soon elevated to a pitch of open fighting and 
doing mischief." — Antiq. xvii. 2, 4. This was at a comparatively early 
period, about 15 years B. C. ; afterwards their own important share in the 
burden of government probably moderated their restlessness. From these 
several allusions to the Pharisees by the same writer, it may be seen how 
naturally they might be represented, by partisans, as models of virtue, and 
by opponents, as intriguing hypocrites. 



24 HISTORICAL SKETCH,, FROM THE BABYLONISH 

had added to the law, and disbelieved a future state. They 
seem to have admitted no more belief than was strictly re- 
quired by the ancient and legal Jewish creed, viz. acknow- 
ledgment of Jehovah, and obedience to the written law of 
Moses. Yet they were not averse to free metaphysical in- 
quiry in the schools. 

The introduction of & fourth sect by Judas the Galilean, so 
important in the estimation of Josephus, from the extent to 
which it spread, and the results which it occasioned, as to 
warrant the most impassioned language in speaking of its rise, 
is a very remarkable feature at this point of Jewish history. 
I quote all that Josephus says concerning it. After relating 
that Coponius was sent as the first Roman procurator, he 
says, " Moreover Cyxenius (the president of Syria,) came 
himself into Judea, which was now added to the province of 
Syria, to take an account of their substance and to dispose 
of Archelaus's money ; but the Jews, although at the begin- 
ning they took the report of a taxation heinously, yet did 
they leave off any farther opposition to it, by the persuasion 
of Joazar, who was the son of Boethus, and high priest. So 
they, being over persuaded by Joazar's words, gave an account 
of their estates, without any dispute about it ; yet there was 
one Judas, a Gaulonite, of a city whose name was Gamala, 
who, taking with him Sadduc, a Pharisee, became zealous to 
draw them to a revolt, who both said that this taxation was 
no better than an introduction to slavery, and exhorted the 
nation to assert then liberty ; as if they could procure them 
happiness and security for what they possessed, and an as- 
sured enjoyment of still greater good, which was that of the 
honour and glory they would thereby acquire for magnani- 
mity. They also said that God would not otherwise be as- 
sisting to them, than upon their joining with one another 
in such councils as might be successful, and for their own ad- 



CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OF JESUS. 25 

vantage ; and this especially, if they would set about great 
exploits, and not grow weary in executing the same ; so men 
received what they said with pleasure, and this bold attempt 
proceeded to a great height. All sorts of misfortunes also 
sprang from these men, and the nation was infected with this 
doctrine to an incredible degree ; one violent war came upon 
us after another, and we lost our friends, who used to alle- 
viate our pains ; there were also very great robberies and 
murders of our principal men. This was done in pretence in- 
deed for the public welfare, but in reality for the hopes of 
gain to themselves ; whence arose seditions, and from them 
murders of men, which sometimes fell upon those of their own 
people, (by the madness of these men towards one another, 
while their desire was that none of the adverse party might 
be left,) and sometimes on their enemies ; a famine also 
coming upon us, reduced us to the last degree of despair, as 
did also the taking and demolishing of cities ; nay, the sedi- 
tion at last increased so high, that the very temple of God 
was burnt down by their enemy's fire. Such were the conse- 
quences of this, that the customs of our fathers were altered, 
and such a change was made, as added a mighty weight to- 
wards bringing all to destruction, which these men occasioned 
by thus conspiring together ; for Judas and Sadduc, who ex- 
cited a fourth philosophic sect among us, and had a great 
many followers therein, filled our civil government with tu- 
mults at present, and laid the foundation of our future mise- 
ries, by this system of philosophy, which we were before un- 
acquainted ivithal ; concerning which I shall discourse a little, 
and this the rather, because the infection which spread thence 
among the younger sort, who were zealous for it, brought the 
public to destruction/' 

His description of the other three sects follows here, after 
which he returns to speak of Judas thus : " But of the fourth 



26 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH 

sect of Jewish philosophy, Judas the Galilean was the author. 
These men agree in all other things with the Pharisaic no- 
tions; but they have an inviolable attachment to liberty; 
and say that God is to be their only ruler and Lord (evidently 
the equivalent of the ' Kingdom of God, or of Heaven') . 
They also do not value dying any kind of death, nor indeed 
do they heed the deaths of their relations and friends, nor 
can any such fear make them call any man Lord ; and since 
this immoveable resolution of theirs is well known to a great 
many, I shall speak no farther about that matter; nor am I 
afraid that anything I have said of them should be disbelieved, 
but rather fear, that what I have said is beneath the resolu- 
tion they show when they undergo pain ; and it was in Ges- 
sius Florus's* time that the nation began to grow mad with 
this distemper, who was our procurator, and who occasioned 
the Jews to go wild with it by the abuse of his authority, and 
to make them revolt from the Romans; and these are the 
sects of Jewish philosophy." — Antiq. xviii. 1. In the corre- 
sponding part of Ms history of the wars, he gives a more brief 
account thus : " And now the part of Judea belonging to Ar- 
chelaus was reduced into a province, and Coponius, one of the 
equestrian order among the Romans, was sent as a procurator, 
having the power of life and death put into his hands by 
Csesar. Under his administration it was that a certain Gali- 
lean, named Judas, prevailed with his countrymen to revolt ; 
and said they were cowards if they would endure to pay a tax 
to the Romans, and would, after God, submit to mortal 
men as their lords. This man was a teacher of a peculiar 



* Josephus evidently means that it was in the time of Floras that the no- 
tions with which Judas had begun to infect the nation 58 years previously, 
and which had been growing to maturity, first showed their fruits in gene- 
ral insurrection. 



CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OF JESUS. 27 

sect of his own, and was not at all like the rest of those their 
leaders." * 

From these fragmentary accounts, it appears very clear that 
the most distinguishing feature of the new sect of Judas, was 
the revival in a more emphatic manner of the ancient tra- 

* The other incidental notices which I can find in Josephus respecting 
Judas are as follows : — 

Antiq. xx. 5, 2. In giving the history of the procuratorship of Tiberius 
Alexander, (A. D. 46 — 48,) he says, " And besides this, the sons of Judas 
of Galilee were now slain ; I mean of that Judas who caused the people to 
revolt, when Cyrenius came to take an account of the estates of the Jews, 
as we have shown in a foregoing book. The names of those sons were 
James and Simon, whom Alexander commanded to be crucified." 

War, ii. 17, 8. In relating the beginning of the war about A. D. 66, he 
mentions the sedition and death of " one Manahem the son of Judas that 
was called the Galilean, who was a very cunning sophister, and had for- 
merly reproached the Jews under Cyrenius, that after God they were subject 
to the Romans." War, vii. 8, 1. " It was one Eleazar, a potent man, and 
the commander of these Sicarii, that had seized upon it (the fortress of 
Masada). He was a descendant from that Judas who had persuaded 
abundance of the Jews, as we have formerly related, not to submit to the 
taxation when Cyrenius was sent into Judea to make one ; for then it was 
that the Sicarii got together against those that were willing to submit to the 
Romans, and treated them in all respects as if they had been their enemies, 
both by plundering them of what they had, by driving away their cattle, 
and by setting fire to their houses : for they said that they differed not at 
all from foreigners, by betraying, in so cowardly a manner, that freedom 
which Jews thought worthy to be contended for to the utmost, and by 
owning that they preferred slavery under the Romans before such a con- 
tention." 

R. Mardochaeus, in Notitid KarcBorum, p. 32, ex versione J. C. Wolfii, says : 

" R. Azarias writes that in some places which we have cited, Josephus men- 
tions a fourth sect, which is that of Judas the Gaulonite, sprung from Ga- 
lilee, of whom mention is made among the Christians at the end of the fifth 
chapter of Acts of the Apostles, who adopted the opinions of the Pharisees, 
but with this addition, that no yoke whatever of an earthly kingdom was to 
be submitted to, but only of the Kingdom of Heaven. On that account all 
his followers exposed themselves to death, to exile, and to every kind of 
calamity rather than undergo the yoke of any earthly king or ruler." — 
Schoett. HorcB Heb. in Act. v. 

Basnage speaks very briefly of Judas, and says, "The Romans sent some 
forces against Judas, and he miserably perished." — vi. 9. 8. But he does 
not give his authority for this, which is rather more than we find in Josephus, 
or in the Acts. 



28 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH 

ditionary expectation of a Kingdom of God, or of Heaven. 
He taught that men should regard God as their only ruler 
and Lord, and despise the apparent strength of the hateful 
foreigners, since God who had so often delivered his people, 
would be able to protect them again, if they were not wanting 
to themselves. He called into new life the slumbering hopes 
of Israel, and bid him endeavour to regain the glories of his 
long-lost theocracy, which might possibly be destined to re- 
appear speedily, and in splendour proportionate to its present 
obscuration, provided only the nation would perform its own 
part. 

It were much to be wished that we had some further ac- 
count of the brave Judas, than the fragments of the Ro- 
manized Pharisee Josephus. It seems that he was not only a 
teacher, but that he headed an armed revolt of some mag- 
nitude.* Josephus does not mention his fate, but it was pro- 
bably the usual one of insurgents against the Romans, since we 
find that the taxation was soon afterwards universally sub- 
mitted to, and that his two sons, James and Simon, were cru- 
cified under the procuratorship of Tiberius Alexander. 

After the failure of the revolt of Judas the Galilean, (about 
A. D. 8,) the Jewish populace ceased, during an interval of 
about twenty-five years, to attempt any important armed re- 
sistance to the Romans ; f and the people became in a great 

* The expression "revolter" applied to him by Josephus agrees with 
Acts v. 37. " After this man, rose up Judas of Galilee, in the days of the 
taxing, and drew away much people after him : he also perished, and all, 
even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed." Nevertheless it is singular 
that Josephus should in both places confine himself to describing the doc- 
trine of Judas and its consequences, and omit all details respecting his 
revolt. 

f The revolt of Judas occurred in the procuratorship of Coponius, A. D. 6 
to 10. He was succeeded by Marcus Ambivius, A. D. 10, Annius Rufus 
13, Valerius Gratus 15, Pontius Pilate 26. The procuratorships of the three 
former seem to have been tolerably tranquil, since Josephus passes over 
them with a very slight notice. Antiq. xviii. 2. He mentions two trifling 



CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OF JESUS. 29 

measure habituated to the yoke, which under the first pro- 
curators was probably not more oppressive than that of the 
Idumean princes ; * but his precepts and example had left 
among the more ardent Jewish spirits, and especially among 
the hardy population of Galilee, a deep-rooted sense of the 
national degradation, and an unquenchable desire of release. 
These feelings found a partial vent in the anticipation of the 
miraculous deliverance promised by the prophets. In the 
chief towns, open displays even of this spirit were repressed 
by the Roman officers, and their allies the Jewish princes, as 
a dangerous symptom,f but it continued to break forth from 
time to time in the villages and country places. A passage 
of the prophet Malachi had announced that Elijah was to 
appear again previously to the divine intervention of the God 
of Israel. An enthusiast of the Essene sect, named John, as- 
sumed the dress and manners of the expected prophet, J and 

disturbances under Pilate, the first on his attempting to form a water-course 
with the sacred treasure called Corban (chap. Hi.; and War, ii. chap, x.), the 
second on the attempt of an enthusiast to assemble a multitude on Mount 
Gerizim. 

* See the complaints of the Jewish ambassadors against Herod and Ar- 
chelaus, during the government of the latter, and their petition to have 
Roman presidents instead of kings ; a repetition of which complaints led 
to the deposition of Archelaus. Antiq. xvii. 1 1 . 

f Josephus says of the last-mentioned pretender, "He was one who 
thought lying a thing of little consequence, and contrived every thing so 
that the multitude might be pleased : so he bade them get together on 
Mount Gerizim, which is by them (the Samaritans) looked upon as the 
most holy of all mountains, and assured them that he would show them those 
sacred vessels which were laid under that place, because Moses put them 
there." They were violently dispersed by Pilate. Antiq. xviii. ch. iv. 

X The last verses of Malachi, iv. 5, 6, "Behold I will send you Elijah the 
prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord," &c, 
were doubtless much commented on by the Jews ; and in the state of the 
nation at that time it was natural enough to attribute the character of Elijah 
to John, from their resemblance to each other in occupation and mode of 
life. But the camel's hair and leathern girdle lead us to infer that John 
himself intended to imitate Elijah (see 2 Kings i. 8). A passage in Zecha- 
riah xiii. 4, seems to show that the imitation had been frequent. 



30 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH 

appeared in the desert near Jordan, baptizing the people, and 
urging them to repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven was at 
hand.* He accompanied this prediction with exhortations to 
virtue, according to the Essene school, representing that na- 
tional reformation was the appointed precursor of the ap- 
proaching change. He thus appears to have combined many 
of the Essene characteristics with a modification of the teach- 
ing of Judas, omitting its warlike tendency. The laudatory 
terms in which Josephus speaks of him as a teacher of virtue, 
furnish a strong presumption that John's discourses contained 
at least no apparent incentive to insurrection.f 

The appearance, however, of an enthusiast, preaching in 
the desert their long-expected kingdom, produced much ex- 
citement throughout Judea.J Crowds came to hear him, and 



* Matt. iii. 2 ; Mark i. 4; Luke iii. 3. 

f " Now some of trie Jews thought that God had suffered Herod's army 
to be destroyed as a just punishment on him for the death of John, called 
the Baptist. For Herod had killed him, who was a just man, and had 
called upon the Jews to be baptized, and to practise virtue, exercising both 
justice toward men, and piety toward God. For so would baptism be ac- 
ceptable to God, if they made use of it, not for the expiation of their sins, 
but for the purity of the body, the mind being first purified by righteousness. 
And many coming to him (for they were wonderfully taken with his dis- 
courses), Herod was seized with apprehensions, lest by his authority they 
should be led into sedition against him ; for they seemed capable of under- 
taking any thing by his direction. Herod therefore thought it better to 
take him off before any disturbance happened, than to run the risk of a 
change of affairs, and of repenting when it should be too late to remedy dis- 
orders. Being taken up on this suspicion of Herod, and being sent bound 
to the castle of Machaerus, just mentioned, he was slain there." — Antiq. 
xviii. ch. 5. 

% In later times, the preaching and sect of John the Baptist were lost sight 
of, owing to the pre-eminence of his successor. But that his sect was one 
of much notoriety near his own time, is seen from Acts xviii. and xix. ; for, 
twenty-three years after his death, Apollos and other Jews, who had not 
even heard of Jesus, were preaching the baptism of John. It is remarkable 
that the writer calls these Jews "certain disciples," which shows that 
John's preaching was considered to comprise the essential doctrine of the 
new sect, of which he was strictlv the founder. This doctrine was the 






K CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OF JESUS. 31 

o give the outward sign of inward purification, submission 
o baptism.* Amongst these was a Galilean named Jesus, 
the son of Joseph, a carpenter of Nazareth. 

All classes of society must from time to time produce indivi- 
duals of distinguished mental superiority. In ordinary times 
this may remain unseen and dormant ; but when some preva- 
lent enthusiasm is abroad, it is quickened into life and action, 
and breaks forth to public gaze in the form of a great character. 
Jesus, the peasant of Galilee, possessed one of those gifted 
minds which are able to make an impression on mankind, and 
the age in which he lived supplied the stimulus required for 
its manifestation. He partook of the enthusiasm common 
to many patriotic Jews of his time, viz. an expectation of the 
approaching miraculous exaltation of Israel ; and the percep- 
tion of his own mental elevation over those around him led 
him to indulge in the idea, not unnatural to any ardent 
Israelite, that he himself was to be the prophet and prince, 
like unto Moses, who should fill the restored throne of 
David. He had studied intensely the literature within the 
reach of the Jewish peasants, the Scriptures of the Old Testa- 
ment^ with which his mind was the more thoroughly imbued, 
as its attention had not been diffused over a wider field of wri- 



coming of the kingdom of Heaven. Aquila and Priscilla did not pretend to 
convert Apollos, who was already instructed in " the way of the Lord," but 
only to explain this way " more perfectly." Acts xviii. 24-26. 

* Moses ordered the people to wash their clothes previously to receiving 
the law. Exod. xix. 10. Aaron and his sons were washed at their conse- 
cration. Levit. viii. 6. Lightfoot (in Matt. iii. 6.) quotes Maimonides and 
many other Jewish authorities to show that baptism was considered a 
necessary introduction of proselytes to Judaism. Hence a new teacher 
might naturally adopt this rite as the sign of initiation or adherence to his 
doctrine. "Partaking of the waters of purification" was an initiatory rite 
with the Essenes. War, ii. 8, 6. 

f The Apocrypha is not an important addition ; and the other Jewish 
writings were chiefly comments upon the Scriptures. 



32 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH 

tings. But a bold and active mind cannot be entirely fettered, 
even by the authorities which, it acknowledges; these may 
give to it a direction, but its native energy will find a vent 
in original thought and speculation. The inconsistency be- 
tween the admission of a divine authority and the exercise of 
reason, is overlooked; or if attended to, an excuse for the 
latter is easily found in the right of each mind to explain and 
interpret at least in its own way. So Jesus, although from 
early associations, patriotism, and conviction, a sincere be- 
liever in the divine authority of Moses and the prophets,* 
drew his chief materials of thought from his own observation 
of men and things ; commented freelyt upon the Scriptures, 
which it never occurred to him to controvert ; scrupled not 
to give to them his own sense ;% and delivered his own say- 
ings with force and sufficiency. § Whilst admitting to him- 
self only the office of fulfilling the law and the prophets, he, 
in reality, made these the stock on which he grafted his own 
thoughts and sentiments. In like manner, although his sta- 
tion and place of abode made him peculiarly conversant with 
the doctrines of the Essenes and Galileans, he was not a mere 
follower of either party, but adopted and re-invigorated with 
his sanction, so much of the sentiments of either as accorded 
with his own taste and judgment. He retained the pure 
morality of the Essenes, but neglected their rigid austerities. 



* Matt, xxiii. 2. 

f Matt. xix. 8, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered 
you to put away your wives, but from the beginning it was not so, and I 
say unto you .... 

% Matt. xxii. 40, On these two commandments hang all the law and the 
prophets. 

§ Matt. v. 21, 22, Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time . . . 
but I say unto you, &c. The greater part of the moral precepts of Jesus 
may be traced in the Old Testament and the Apocrypha ; but the mode 
of introducing them, and the addition of some new views, are enough to 
establish his title to originality. 



CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OF JESUS. 33 

He adopted the religious liberalism of Judas, but he abstained 
from the evidently useless proceeding of declared insurrec- 
tion. 

A mind conscious of its own power, and whose energy is in- 
creased by a tincture of enthusiasm, must make itself felt in 
some manner. It was impossible for Jesus to remain his whole 
life a carpenter at Nazareth ; but all ordinary ways to greatness 
were then closed to the lower ranks in Judea, except that of 
heading a revolt. The priesthood was confined to the family of 
Aaron ; the prejudices of Jerusalem must exclude a Galilean 
peasant from the Sanhedrim ;* and other subsidiary dignities 
could only be reached by subservience to the Romans or to 
the tetrarchs. The necessity of action in a sphere congenial 
to the ruling tendencies of the mind, is, with some persons, 
a more powerful motive than a cool calculation of conse- 
quences ; and Jesus determined to imitate Moses, and fulfil 
the prophets, by assuming the character of the Messiah, or 
the Prophet-king of Israel. 

The preaching of John roused him from the obscurity in 
which he had remained till about the 30th year of his age ; 
and immediately after his baptism by his predecessor, he 
began himself, with far greater resources, to preach on the 
same favourite topic, the approach of the Kingdom of heaven,f 
endeavouring chiefly in the first place, to introduce that ge- 
neral Repentance, and return to righteousness, which by 
many devout Jews were believed to be the first and most in- 
dispensable requisites for attaining the Kingdom. His dis- 
courses, like those of John, were filled up with exhortations to 
morality, agreeing mostly with those of the older Jewish 

* Strictly speaking, the Sanhedrim was open to all the Israelites. Mai- 
mon. in Sanhed. cap. 2. But the priests and Levites appear to have formed 
the greater part. 

t Matt. iv. 17, From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Re- 
pent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 

D 



34 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH 

writings and of the Essenes, and with vigorous reproofs of 
the prevailing corruptions of the age. Public preaching on 
such topics, accompanied by inexhaustible illustrations from 
nature and familiar objects,* could hardly fail in any country 
of drawing crowds of listeners. 

In nations little acquainted with physical science, mental 
superiority is often supposed to be connected with some de- 
gree of command over the inanimate world ; and the mul- 
titudes who heard Jesus imagined that nature, as well as 
they, must recognize his authority. Nor was it unnatural, 
in the state of science at that time, that Jesus himself should 
share the notion.f Accordingly, when urged by the crowds 
to heal their maladies, he yielded to their importunities, J 
so far as to speak the word which they wanted. § In many 
such cases, the confident expectation of its efficiency was 
enough to produce an apparent success, and it appears that 
Jesus was in general cautious of committing himself to the 
trial, unless there was this confidence in the party apply- 

* Matt. xiii. 34, All these things spake Jesus to the multitude in para- 
bles, and without a parable spake he not unto them. 

t The learned Josephus even often intimates that he himself possessed 
certain supernatural gifts by virtue of his priestly dissent. War, book iii. 
c. viii. 3, 9. 

X And they brought unto him all sick people, &c. ; ix. 27, And two blind 
men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy 
on us ; xv. 23, And a woman of Canaan cried unto him, Have mercy on 
me, O Lord, thou Son of David ; my daughter is grievously vexed with a 
devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and be- 
sought him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after us ... In this gos- 
pel, it seldom appears that Jesus sought an opportunity of doing a miracle, 
but rather that the attempt was forced upon him. 

§ The addition, " and he healed them all," or its equivalent, occurs so 
regularly at the close of all Matthew's narratives of this sort, that it looks 
more like a sentence adopted to finish the story well, than the evidence to 
a matter of fact. For, in general, this, the most important part of the story, 
is passed over without giving particulars. See, in addition to the above, 
Matt. viii. 13-16 ; xiv. 34 ; xv. 30; xx. 34. The question concerning Mat- 
thew's veracity will be considered in chap. iii. 



CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OF JESUS. 35 

ing.* But when he found the attempt succeed, he would begin 
to entertain more seriously the idea that he possessed the super- 
natural power attributed to him, and might easily conclude, 
that, by relying on it, and boldly exercising it, any miracle 
was possible.f Perceiving that in such cases diffidence 
usually preceded a failure, he might naturally infer that a 
sufficient degree of confidence only was wanting to produce 
the most wonderful effect. 

The prevalent opinion of his country was that diseases were 
occasioned by the entrance of demons into the human body, 
and the power of expelling them by certain words of com- 
mand was believed in by the most enlightened Jews. J The 

* Matt. ix. 2, And Jesus, seeing their faith, saith unto the sick of the 
palsy. . .ix. 27, Believe ye that t am able to do this?. . .Then touched 
he their eyes, saying, According to your faith, be it unto you. 

f Matt. xvii. 19, 20, Then said the disciples, Why could not we cast him 
out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say 
unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this 
mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing 
shall be impossible to you. 

X Josephus has the following passages concerning demons : — ■" Yet after 
all this pains in getting, it (the root Baaras) is only valuable on account of 
one virtue it hath, that if it be only brought to sick persons, it quickly 
drives away those called demons, which are no other than the spirits of the 
wicked, that enter into men that are alive, and kill them, unless they can ob- 
tain some help against them." — War, vii. ch. vi. 3. 

" God enabled him (Solomon) to learn that skill which expels demons, 
which is a science useful and sanative to men. He composed such incan- 
tations also by which distempers are alleviated. And he left behind him the 
manner of using exorcisms, by which they drive away demons, so that they 
never return, and this method of cure is of great force unto this day ; for I 
have seen a certain man of my own country, named Eleazar, releasing 
people that were demoniacal in the presence of Vespasian and his sons, and 
his captives, and the whole multitude of his soldiers. The manner of the 
cure was this : — He put a ring that had a root of one of those sorts men- 
tioned by Solomon to the nostrils of the demoniac, after which he drew out 
the demon through his nostrils ; and when the man fell down immediately, 
he abjured him to return into him no more, making still mention of Solo- 
mon, and reciting the incantation which he had composed. And when 
Eleazar would persuade and demonstrate to the spectators that he had such 

D 2 



36 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH 

miracle was one of the most ambiguous kind, since any 
change of symptoms might be regarded as proof of the de- 
mon's exit. In cases of lunacy, an authoritative word or 
gesture might produce a momentary calm ; and in fits, ex- 
haustion must soon bring on the same state. In many other 
diseases, palsy, fever, &c, a sudden energetic effort on the 
part of the patient might produce the appearance of recovery. 
Instances of success, which were alone likely to be recorded, 
(although we have some indications of occasional failure,)* 
would be improved in passing from mouth to mouth, and by 
zealous partizans the account would soon be embellished with 
a few tales of more decided miracles, such as curing the 
blind and raising the dead; especially if such tales had some 
foundation in fact, so far as that the attempt, or the applica- 
tion only, had been really made.f 

Jesus having thus acquired the reputation of a miracle- 
worker, as well as of a prophet, was followed in his progress 
through the towns of Galilee by multitudes of the populace, 



a power, he set a little way off a cup or basin full of water, and commanded 
the demon, as he went out of the man, to overturn it, and thereby to let 
the spectators know that he had left the man ; and when this was done, the 
skill and wisdom of Solomon were shown very manifestly." — Antiq. viii. 2-5. 

* Compare Matt. x. 1, " And he gave them power to cast out unclean 
spirits," with xviii. 16, "And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could 
not cure him." See also Mark vi. 5, "And he could there do no mighty 
work (ovk r)8waTo), save that he laid his hands on a few sick folk and healed 
them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief." The translation of the 
Improved Version is " would not," but the usual sense of Swa/iat is "to be 
able." Besides, it is plain that want of will was not the cause of the ill 
success of Jesus, since he did make some attempts, and also because the 
word " marvelled" implies some disappointment. 

This passage shows very clearly that belief was considered as an essen- 
tial preparation for a miracle ; and therefore when the miracle did not take 
place, it was natural enough for the disciples to attribute the failure to the 
want of belief. 

f The miracles attributed to Jesus will be examined more closely in 
chap. viii. 



CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OF JESUS. 37 

and even by some of the better sort of the Jews,* who cherished 
in secret the hope of their country's revival, and began to look 
upon the new prophet of Nazareth, as more than a common pre- 
tender. Jesus then proceeded to lay the foundation for a se- 
parate organized society by selecting twelve of his countrymen 
to be his more immediate supporters, promising them that 
when he should obtain his kingdom, they should rule under 
him over the twelve tribes of Israel. These he sent forth to 
the neighbouring towns to preach,t like John and himself, 
the preparation for the approaching miraculous regeneration 
of Israel, or the Kingdom of Heaven. J 

Jesus at first assumed only the title of Son of Man,§ which 
had been given to some of the prophets. The more dan- 
gerous claim of the character of Messiah, or successor of 

* That some of the disciples, besides Matthew, had been in tolerable 
worldly circumstances, may be conjectured from Matt. xix. 29. 

f Matt. x. 7, And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is 
at hand. 

% That Jesus at first, like the rest of his countrymen, considered the 
kingdom of heaven to mean primarily the exaltation of his nation, appears 
from the following texts : Matt. v. 35, Swear not, neither by Jerusalem, 
for it is the city of the great king ; x. 5, Go not into the way of the Gen- 
tiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not ; but go rather to the 
lost sheep of the house of Israel ; xv. 24, I am not sent but to the lost 
sheep of the house of Israel ; xix. 28, When the Son of Man shall sit upon 
the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging 
the twelve tribes of Israel ; xxiii. 37, O Jerusalem, how often would I have 
gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her 
wing, and ye would not. — Besides, the natural and common signification of 
the word Christ, or Anointed, was equivalent to king. See 1 Samuel 
xxiv. 6. 

But in maintaining that Jesus aimed at the dominion over Israel, it is not 
pretended that his views were all along limited to this. The coming of the 
kingdom, in the last verse of Malachi, and in Isaiah, is made coincident 
with the spread of righteousness over the earth. Jesus, having derived his 
views in great part from the prophets, intended to be both king and pro- 
phet ; and therefore spoke both as a national regenerator and a moral re- 
former. 

§ The chief reason for Jesus's assuming this title will be considered in 
the examination of Daniel, chap. xiv. 



38 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH 

David, he only acknowledged in secret to his more confi- 
dential followers ; * for its open avowal was nearly equivalent 
to a declaration of revolt from the Romans, and an armed 
insurrection does not seem to have been his immediate aim. 
He contented himself with the exercise of his prophetic office 
amongst the people, and with spreading the expectation of the 
divine deliverance promised by the prophets. This conduct 
might appear to the ruling authorities suspicious, but was not 
immediate sedition ; and their patience or indifference lasted 
till few synagogues or villages of Galilee remained which had 
not heard the voice of the new prophet or of his fol- 
lowers. 

To understand the conduct of Jesus, we must allow that it 
was, like that of all other men, influenced, in some degree, by 
circumstances. If, at this critical time, his preaching through- 
out Galilee had been followed by a general rising of the 
Jewish nation, the expulsion of the Romans, and the election 
of himself to the throne, his acts and expressions up to this 
time lead us to conjecture that, although his superior pro- 
phetic dignity set him above the subordinate details of organ- 
izing and heading revolts in person, he might yet have 
accepted such success as a sign from heaven, and allowed 
himself to be borne on to the seat of David, in the generally 
understood character of the Messiah, a triumphant king of 
Israel. But events happened otherwise ; and from them the 
views of Jesus necessarily took a somewhat different co- 
lour, f 

His proceedings attracted the attention of the Jewish ru- 
lers. J Herod, the tetrarch of Galilee, had already imprisoned 

* Matt. xvi. 13-20. 

f The character and views of Jesus will be considered more fully in ch. 
xvi. 

t Matt. xiv. 1. 






. 



CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OE JESUS. 39 



John, from jealousy of his influence with the people, and, ac- 
cording to Josephus, put him to death from the same motive. 
Jesus appeared to be a still more dangerous person, and it 
became known that Herod was seeking to arrest him. 

Jesus at first avoided the danger by retiring into desert 
places.* His situation was now become difficult and per- 
plexing. Although followed by crowds of wonder-gazers, who, 
he knew, were able to confer only the name and the danger 
of royalty, none of the influential towns f had given him any 
support or countenance, and no signs from heaven yet ap- 
peared to indicate superhuman aid. His progress hitherto 
seemed brilliant; but it could not long be continued. To 
perambulate the towns of Galilee, preaching to hungry mul- 
titudes, must become a burden to both parties as soon as the 
excitement of novelty was lost. And now the local govern- 
ment was about to interfere. 

There were two courses open to Jesus ; to endeavour to 
make his peace with the tetrarch, by withdrawing from the 
public eye and sinking back to his original station, or to sus- 
tain his claims and perish a martyr ; for it was obvious that 
the danger must be greater at Jerusalem, or the parts ad- 
joining, than in Galilee. 

The magnanimity which leads public men to fear death less 
than a disgraceful retreat is not uncommon. The energy of 
his character, the raised expectations of his followers, and 
probably a secret persuasion that he was still the agent des- 
tined to accomplish the purpose of the God of Israel, led Je- 



* Matt. xiv. 13. 

t Matt. xi. 21-23, " Wo unto thee Chorazin . . . Bethsaida . . . and thou, 
Capernaum." It will be seen that this sketch follows chiefly the order of 
Matthew, but not exactly. For reasons to be given hereafter, it appears 
that this gospel is the best guide in this respect, but still that it has not 
preserved the true order of all the events and discourses. 



40 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH 

sus to prefer the former. He determined to go up at once to 
Jerusalem, and to claim openly the Messiahship.* This was 
rushing upon nearly certain death. Enthusiasm cannot 
blind men to the most obvious consequences of their actions, 
and Jesus had already experienced that his imagined cha- 
racter of Messiah did not secure him from human wants and 
dangers.f He began to contemplate the probability of his 
martyrdom, and to give some intimations to his followers 
that the Messiah must suffer before he should reign. J 

He proceeded then towards Jerusalem, accompanied by the 
most ardent of his followers, and by the women of rank who 
supplied the temporal wants of the society. After visiting 
some intermediate towns, he made his entry boldly into the 
metropolis, riding upon an ass's colt, in order to apply 
to himself a passage of Zechariah supposed to relate to the 
Messiah. § The populace crowded about the prophet of Na- 



* Matt. xvi. 21, " From that time forth, began Jesus to show unto his dis- 
ciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the 
elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the 
third day." — The reasons for admitting only a part of this account are given 
in chap. xv. 

f Matt. viii. 20. 

X To ascertain precisely the time at which Jesus began to teach the doc- 
trine of a suffering Messiah is one of the most difficult points in this inquiry. 
For all the evangelists are more or less careless of the order of time in re- 
lating the discourses of Jesus, and the subsequent conduct of the disciples 
seems to show that he did not plainly predict his death so soon. Yet it was 
natural enough, on taking such a dangerous step as the journey to Je- 
rusalem, that he should prepare himself for the worst, and that he should 
begin to mould his doctrine according to his internal apprehensions. But 
it was not done in Galilee so clearly as to prevent the disciples' expectation 
of a temporal kingdom, which continued till nearly his death. See chap. xv. 

§ Zech. ix. 9. The rest of the book shows tolerably clearly that Zech- 
ariah intended this passage for his patron Zerubbabel. But, like many 
other passages descriptive of a king of Israel, and rendered obscure by the 
want of a more minute history, it was likely to be considered a prophecy 
of the Messiah, when quoted separately. 

In a tract of the Talmud, Sanhedrin, fol. 98, 1, this text of Zechariah is 






CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OF JESUS. 41 



aareth, and were easily induced by the disciples to join in 
proclaiming him son of David, and Messiah. Encouraged by 
their enthusiasm, and supported for a brief space by their 
physical strength, he proceeded to signalize Zion's reception 
of her king by a more open and practical demonstration of 
his claims than any that he had yet ventured upon. He not 
only accepted the dangerous homage of the multitude, but 
endeavoured to excite more general attention by proceeding, in 
his character of regenerator, to expel by main force the traf- 
fickers from the temple. 

But the cautious vigilance of the priests and Pharisees 
soon checked the momentary popular enthusiasm. The city 
in general pursued its occupations, the Roman garrison re- 
mained in full strength,* and the faith which had been able 
to expel demons, and which it was hoped might be able, when 
fully relied on, to cast mountains into the sea, was now found 
insufficient to triumph over the formidable realities with 
which Jesus and his followers had come into contact. The 
last resource had failed ; the King had entered, yet Zion for 
the most part remained unmoved. Jesus perceived that even 
the partial support which he had received, brought him in 
reality nearer to the cross than to the throne of Israel, since 
a disorderly mob was no protection against the Roman go- 
vernment, and without a legion of angels he had little chance 
of resisting the legions of Pilate. He now saw that not only 
was there no chance of a national effort at regeneration, but 

considered as relating to the Messiah, and is reconciled with Dan. vii. 13, 
thus; " If the Israelites conducted themselves well, the Messiah would 
come on the clouds of Heaven ; if they showed themselves unworthy, he 
would come in a lowly form, and sitting on an ass." There is reason 
to believe that the Talmud, although compiled after the time of Christ, pre- 
serves the traditions existing before his time. In this case, it is in the 
highest degree improbable that its Jewish compilers should have borrowed 
from the Christian records. 

* Roman garrison in Jerusalem mentioned War, ii. 13, 5. 



42 



HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH 



that it was not the will of God for the present to grant aid 
from heaven. At the outset of his career, he might have flat- 
tered himself that he was destined to be a second Moses, and 
to redeem Israel by mighty signs and wonders; but his 
progress hitherto had convinced him that this was not in the 
divine plans, and the Essene doctrines of implicit submission 
to the decrees of Providence, and of the immortality of the 
soul, led him to look calmly on the growing probability of his 
own approaching death. It was only left for him to maintain, 
as long as events allowed, the character of prophet and king, 
which he had so long borne amongst his followers, and 
to meet his fate with a dignity becoming his pretensions. 

Jesus having thus prepared his mind for the worst, met the 
remonstrances of the Pharisees with covert defiance, and 
continued to preach unreservedly to the people. His au- 
dacity for a time insured his safety ; for the people, admiring 
his boldness, and delighted with his discourses, which rebuked 
keenly the vices of their superiors, became his protectors; 
insomuch that it was seen that any open attempt to destroy 
him must produce a tumult. The Jewish priests and nobles 
were perplexed. In the existing state of the public mind, 
the most trifling tumult might become the occasion of an in- 
surrection ; they were in an embarrassing position with re- 
spect to the Romans, who had left them hitherto many 
privileges, but who might make use of any appearance of 
revolt to reduce them to more rigid subjection. Placed be- 
tween imperious masters and an impatient populace, and 
having themselves still much to lose, their constant policy 
was to preserve the status quo, and to stifle at once, as quietly 
as possible, all tendency to sedition.* They would have will- 



* See the account of Agrippa's attempt to stifle a tumult (Jos., War, book 
ii. xvi.) ; and the commendations given to the high priest Ananus on the 
same account, War, iv. v. 



CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OF JESUS. 43 

ingly denounced Jesus at once to the Roman governor, who 
alone possessed the power of life and death ; but he had not 
yet committed any sufficiently clear act of treason, and would 
not be led by their agents into a declaration against the tri- 
bute. They were constrained, then, to see him for a time 
continuing in the temple the preaching which had excited 
the multitudes in Galilee. He took up his residence at a dis- 
ciple's house in Bethany, whence he could conveniently visit 
Jerusalem, and, by the attractiveness of his character and dis- 
courses, gained many adherents. A few even of the nobles, 
who partook of the popular feeling, and themselves waited for 
the kingdom of God, secretly befriended him. Amongst 
these were Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. But the 
greater part of the leading men perceived that a reformer who 
not only avowed his claim to the throne of David, but who 
inveighed unsparingly against themselves, must at any risk 
be removed. In addition to the danger of compromising 
them with the Romans, he was leading the people to despise 
their own authority. They decided upon seizing his person 
at some moment when he could be found apart from the peo- 
ple, and then delivering him to the governor as a mover of 
sedition. 

One of the disciples of Jesus was known to the high priest.* 
By his means, or through his concealed friends, Joseph and 
Nicodemus, Jesus had notice of the intention to apprehend 
him ; but he had been long prepared to prefer martyrdom to 
flight. He assembled his disciples to eat the passover supper 
with him, and took a formal leave of them, telling them now 
plainly that, in order to fulfil the prophets, t the Messiah 



* John viii. 15. The writer of this gospel relates the purport of several 
secret consultations of the Pharisees and priests. John ix. 47 ; xii. 19. 
f Matt. xxvi. 24, 31, 54, 56. 



44 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH 

must be cut off, and undergo death as preparatory to the re- 
ception of his kingdom.* The garden of Gethsemane might 
witness some mournful strugglings of nature as the last 
dreadful reality seemed to approach, when the Messiah must 
lose all remnants of his imaginary dignity, and in the sight 
of his companions be presented to Jerusalem as a crucified 
malefactor instead of a triumphant King. But the disgrace- 
ful evasions which, in this extremity, might have been the 
resource of a mere disappointed impostor, were impossible to 
Jesus. The same earnest faith in the God of Israel which 
had led him to contemplate projects, in ordinary calculation 
the wildest visions, could endow him with fortitude equal at 
least to that of the many well-known examples in his country's 
scriptures and legends. To brave the anger of the Sanhedrim 
and of Pilate was a resolution not extraordinary in a generous 
mind, brought up from infancy to admire the youths who 
had persisted in serving God in defiance of Nebuchadnezzar, 
Darius, and Antiochus.f 

The gradual change in the views of Jesus since his depar- 
ture from Galilee had not been readily adopted by his disci- 
ples. Excepting Judas Iscariot, whose attachment was not 
strong enough to bind him to the indications of his master's 



* Luke xxii. 16, 18, 28, 29. 

f The ardour of the Jews to die for their religion and country, probably 
much surpassed the similar spirit amongst the Greeks and Romans. 
The examples are innumerable from the times of the Maccabees. In 
the reign of Herod the Great, Judas and Matthias, teachers of the law, 
thus exhort the young men to pull down a golden eagle erected by the 
king contrary to the law : " the virtue of the action would appear much 
more advantageous to them than the pleasures of life ; they would die for 
the preservation of the law of their fathers ; they would acquire an ever- 
lasting fame and commendation ; the common calamity of dying cannot 
be avoided by our living so as to escape any such dangers, but death is 
alleviated when attained by actions which bring praise and honour." — Ant. 
xvii. 6. 2. In other places, the immortality of the soul is not omitted. 
See War, vii. 8, 7. 



CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OF JESUS. 45 

approaching fate, and Peter, James, and John, who might 
already have begun, like Jesus, to transfer their hopes to a 
kingdom to be revealed hereafter from heaven; the disciples 
in general retained their first expectations, and trusted, in 
spite of all adverse appearances, that Jesus was he which 
should redeem Israel. The doctrine of a suffering Messiah 
was to them all too surprising to allow of their minds being 
accommodated to it on so short a notice; and when the 
capture of Jesus was soon afterwards effected, the whole of 
the disciples, after some feeble attempts at resistance, forsook 
him and fled. 

The constancy with which men sustain their pretensions 
under persecution, insult, and the fear of death, is generally 
regarded as a strong, although not infallible, proof of their 
sincerity. The highest degree of evidence of this kind is 
afforded by the conduct of Jesus during his trial. It shows 
that, if he had deluded others by his assumption of the 
Messiahship, and the promise of his approaching kingdom, 
he himself fully shared in the delusion. Before the tribunals 
of his judges, he abated nothing of the claims which he had 
announced in secret to his disciples. To the high priest he 
asserted that he was the Christ, and the Son of Man, who 
would be seen hereafter coming on the clouds of heaven.* 
To the Roman governor he also admitted at once that he was 
the King of the Jews.t The quiet confidence with which 



* Matt. xxvi. 64. 

f Luke xxiii. 2, " And they began to accuse him, saying, We found 
this man perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, 
saying, that he himself is Christ a king. And Pilate asked him, saying, 
Art thou the king of the Jews ? and he answered him, and said, Thou 
sayest." From Luke xxii. 70, 71, it appears that this was a form of assent. 
This is confirmed by several Rabbinical passages. 

Matt, xxvii. 11, " And Jesus stood before the governor, and the gover- 
nor asked him, saying, Art thou the king of the Jews ? and Jesus said unto 



46 



HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH 



he maintained pretensions apparently so extravagant, when a 
renunciation of them might possibly have saved his life ; the 
firm self-possession with which he declined to answer the 
accusations brought against him, thereby neglecting the op- 
portunity, to which few men in such circumstances show 
themselves indifferent, of making a favourable impression on 
the bystanders, by clearing away misrepresentations, extenua- 
ting or explaining the most obnoxious parts of their conduct, 
and finally appealing to their pity or admiration; — these 
points in the conduct of Jesus seem to betoken a high-minded 
and sincere enthusiasm, free from any consciousness of im- 
posture. He behaved like a prophet, Messiah, and Son of 
God, because he believed himself to be such. 

Pilate did not consider the mere assumption of the title 
Christ as a capital crime, since it appeared to be unaccom- 
panied by any clear proof* of treason, and was willing to 
spare the life of Jesus. But he suffered himself to be over- 
ruled by the priests. He had some respect for the native 
leaders of Judea, and could not refuse to concede to them 
the death of one man. As a Roman soldier, his object was 
to preserve the country in subjection to the empire, and the 
administration of strict justice would appear to him a less 
certain and obvious method than a system of prompt execu- 
tions, f The sacrifice of a Jew accused of sedition by his 



him, Thou say est." After this, according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, 
Jesus answered no further questions. John alone inserts a further conver- 
sation, in which Jesus says that his kingdom is not of this world. But 
some reasons will be given in chap. vi. for considering the dialogues in this 
last gospel chiefly as a convenient form adopted by the writer for delivering 
the doctrines of his own time. 

* Matt, xxvii. 23, Why, what evil hath he done ? 

f The account of Pilate in Josephus, Ant. xviii. 3 & 4, gives rather the 
impression of a harsh soldier than of a wanton tyrant like Florus. The 
acts related are chiefly instances of blundering severity in support of the 
Roman authority. 






CAPTIVITY TO THE DEATH OF JESUS. 47 



own countrymen, could at least do no harm. He gave 
sentence, then, that it should be as they required ; and Jesus, 
after being scourged, was crucified by the soldiers. He 
seemed to expire in the unusually short time of about six 
hours;* he remained suspended till the evening, f which 
might be three or four hours longer; and before he was 
taken down from the cross, one of the soldiers, in order to 
ascertain, or to ensure his death, pierced his side with a 
spear. J 

* According to Mark, who is the most exact in noting the time, Jesus 
was crucified at the third hour, the darkness hegan at the sixth hour, and 
he expired at the ninth hour. (xv. 25, 33, 34.) Matthew and Luke appear 
to mean also, that the darkness, not the crucifixion, hegan at the sixth 
hour. But John says it was about the sixth hour when Pilate said, Behold 
your king, previously to the crucifixion. Since the other three agree very 
well, it is most reasonable to attribute the mistake to the last gospel. 

f The body had not been taken down when Joseph applied to Pilate. 
Mark xv. 46. This was when the even was come. Matt, xxvii. 57. Mark 
xv. 42. The sun set at Jerusalem in the beginning of April soon after six. 
Their third hour corresponded to our nine o'clock. Therefore Jesus was 
suspended nine hours, and possibly some short time longer. 

X Notwithstanding the surprise of Pilate that Jesus should be so soon 
dead, (Mark xv. 44,) I cannot find sufficient reason to disbelieve the reality 
of his death before he was taken from the cross ; for, firstly, The injuries un- 
dergone by Jesus, viz. the scourging and other ill-treatment from the 
soldiers before crucifixion, the loss of blood by the piercing of the hands 
and feet, and the unnatural distortion of the limbs during six hours, might 
be sufficient to cause death to a man unless very robust. Secondly, The 
Roman soldiers were well accustomed to their business, and were not likely 
to pass by Jesus at the breaking of the legs, unless they were satisfied of 
his death. Thirdly, The piercing of his side was an additional security. 
Fourthly, Pilate's attention was drawn to the matter, and he therefore must 
have obtained what he considered satisfactory evidence of the death from 
the centurion, before he granted the body to Joseph. Fifthly, In the sub- 
sequent controversies between the disciples of Jesus and the Jews, the 
latter never pretended that Jesus had not really died on the cross, but 
answered the story of the resurrection in a manner which admitted it. 

Victorinus, who was crucified under Nerva, with his head downwards, 
lived three days. The martyrs Timotheus and Maura lived nine days, 
Eusebius says that some who were crucified in Egypt died only of hunger ; 
yet St. Andrew, who was fastened with cords instead of nails, in order that 
his death might be slower, died in two days ; which would lead us to sup- 



48 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE BABYLONISH 

Joseph of Arhnathea, using the liberty which the Jewish 
custom* allowed to the family (including probably the friends) 
of the deceased, demanded the body from Pilate ; in concert 
with Nicodemus, he embalmed it in the Jewish manner, by 
wrapping it in linen and spices, and buried it the same even- 
ing in a tomb, said by Matthew to be his own, and described 
by John as near at hand, and situated in a garden. 



Schoettgen, Horae Heb. i. 9, gives an account of all that can be found in the 
Talmud concerning Jesus. The following "is an abridgment of what he has col- 
lected : — 

Sanhedrin, fol. 67. 1. "He whom we call the son of Satda, is the son of 
Pandira. His mother was Mary, the plaiter of women's hair." It is questioned 
whether Satda was the name of Mary or of her husband. Massecheth Kallah, 
fol. 18. 2. The story of Mary's infidelity to her lawful husband is related in a 
different way, but with many absurdities, one of which is that R. Akiba is made 
her cotemporary. Sanhedrin, fol. 107, 2. " When king Jannaeus slew the Rabbins, 
(Alex. Jannaeus reigned 105 — 79 before our Christian aera,) R. Josua ben Pera- 
chia, and Jesus went to Alexandria in Egypt." Then follows an excommunication 
of Jesus by the Rabbi, after which it is said that Jesus exercised magic, and led 



pose that death in one day or less, with the usual method, might often 
occur. Lipsius de Cruce, 1. 2. cap. viii. &" ix. 

Josephus (Vita, 75) relates that he obtained leave from Titus to take 
down three of his friends who had been crucified, and were still alive ; that 
the utmost care was taken of them, but that one only recovered. He does 
not say how long they had been suspended. 

This subject will be considered further in the Appendix. 

* The Romans were accustomed to leave the bodies of criminals upon the 
cross until they were consumed away, or were devoured by birds of prey. 
The Jewish law (Deut. xxi. 23.) ordained that the body of " one hanged 
upon a tree should not remain all night upon the tree, but should in any 
wise be removed that day." The Romans usually abstained from infring- 
ing Jewish customs; but as a special request was deemed necessary to 
obtain the removal of the bodies of Jesus and the two crucified with him, 
(John xix. 31.) it would seem doubtful if this Jewish law was invariably 
observed in the case of crucifixions by Roman authority. With respect to 
the burial of criminals, the Sanhedrim were accustomed to inter those exe- 
cuted by their order in tombs set apart for the purpose, and with certain 
circumstances of ignominy ; but if the relations of the person executed de- 
manded the body, it was granted to them. Babyl. Sanhedrin, fol. 46, 2, 
quoted by Lightfoot in Matt, xxvii. 58. 



CAPTIVITY TD THE DEATH OF JESUS. 49 

the Israelites into the worst sins. The same things repeated, Sotah, fol. 47, 1. 
The chronology being evidently erroneous, R. Gedaliah in Shalsheleth hakkabala, 
fol. 17, 1, says that another R. Josua, who lived seventy years before the temple 
was destroyed, was the preceptor of Jesus. Schabbath, fol. 104, 2. There is a 
tradition that R. Eliezer said to the learned men, " Did not the son of Satda bring 
magic from Egypt, by a cutting made in his flesh '?" They replied " Stultus 
fuit ; ab homine stulto vere probationem nullam petere solemus." Raschius explains 
that the Egyptians prohibited their magical books from being carried out of their 
country, and that Jesus abstracted a schedule in an incision in his thigh. San- 
hedrin, fol. 67, 1. The method of stoning those who seduced the people is related. 
" Thus they did to the son of Satda in Lud, (Lydda) and suspended him on the 
evening of the Passover." Sanhedrin, fol. 43, 1. A tradition ; " on the evening of 
the Passover they suspended Jesus. And a crier went before him for forty days, 
saying ; He goeth forth to be stoned, because he hath used divinations, and 
deceived, and seduced Israel to apostacy. Whosoever can testify to his innocence, 
let him come forth and testify. But they found no one to testify, and they sus- 
pended him on the evening of the Passover." Gittin, fol. 57, 1. A story is told 
of the punishment after death of a certain Jesus, who however is said afterwards 
to be not the God of the Christians, but another, who derided the words of the 
sages : " For behold, it is not written Jesus Nazaraeus, but Jesus Gereda. More- 
over, yours is not to be understood, because he did not commit this only, but 
seduced Israel, and made himself God, and overthrew the whole foundation of 
piety. Therefore he must needs be wholly diverse from him, who admitted the 
written law, but rejected the oral one only, and who ought to be called not other- 
wise than a heretic." Sanhedrin, fol. 43, 1. " Our Rabbins deliver that Jesus 
had five disciples ; Matthai, Nakai, Nezer, Boni, and Thoda (Thaddaeus ?)." A 
story of their execution is related, each endeavouring to save himself by a Scrip- 
ture quotation. Avoda Sara, fol. 17, 1. " R. Eliezer said, I was once walking in 
the upper market-place of Zippore, and found there one of the disciples of Jesus 
the Nazarene, whose name was James Sechaniensis (of Shechem ?)." Then follows 
a discussion on a point of the law. Avoda Sara, fol. 40, 4, and Schabbath, fol. 
14, 4. A story of the cure of R. Eleazar ben Dama of a serpent's bite by the word 
of Jacobus of Sama, in the name of Jesus son of Pandira : which cure is con- 
demned as unlawful by R. Ismael, and Eleazar dies. A similar story is told of 
the nephew of R. Josua ben Levi, who suffered from a stoppage in the throat ; 
and " a certain man came to him, who whispered in the name of Jesus, son of 
Pandira, and he was immediately healed. But R. Josua pronounced that it would 
have been better for him to die ; and this happened." 

The value of all this is little more than to show that the Talmud cannot help 
us much as to the history of Jesus. In fact, the Jews of the schools of Palestine 
after the fall of Jerusalem, are miserable sources of history of any kind. Their, 
allusions to their own affairs and to the recent war are mixed with absurd legends. 
Besides Josephus and Philo, there is no Jewish historical authority of value 
during the first two centuries. Notwithstanding the satisfactory testimonies 
brought by Josephus to the superior exactness of his own work, (Life, § 66), we 
must lament the loss of that of his rival Justus of Tiberias, who wrote the Jewish 
history from Moses to the death of the younger Agrippa. ButPhotius (33rd code 
of Bibliotheca) tells us that he had read the book of Justus, and that it contained 
no mention of the appearance of Christ, and passed over slightly the affairs most 
necessary to be insisted upon (doubtless those relating to the Christians). 



50 



HISTORICAL SKETCH, ETC. 



King Agrippa, after applauding highly the works of Josephus, adds, " How- 
ever when thou comest to me, I will inform thee of a great many things which 
thou dost not know." It is probable that these things related more to the secrets 
of his own and the Roman court, than to the affairs of Paul and the Christians. 
Yet how the hint awakens our wish for the king's account of the Apostle's 
trial ! 



( 51 ) 



CHAPTER II. 

HISTORICAL SKETCH CONTINUED, FROM THE DEATH OF 
JESUS TO THE END OF THE FIRST CENTURY. 

The disciples of Jesus had not thought it possible that the 
Messiah could be allowed to perish ignominiously, but rather 
hoped that each successive disappointment was in reality 
bringing him nearer to his throne. The unexpected cata- 
strophe bewildered them ; and for a short time their allegiance 
was shaken by alarm and uncertainty. They feared to appear 
in public as his friends ; the women, who incurred less 
danger, alone went to see where he was laid, and after the 
Sabbath, were the first to visit the tomb. 

But this interval of one day and two nights, following 
upon the first hasty interment of Jesus, had given time to 
Joseph to take what further measures seemed expedient to 
him. His performance of the office of a friend in securing 
an honourable burial to Jesus, might excite suspicions on the 
part of the governor or of the council, and at the same time 
lead the disciples to regard him as their protector and leader. 
These characters he was not at all anxious to assume. He 
might have listened with interest to the discourses of Jesus, 
but his secret discipleship was not of that kind that he could 
leave all to follow him. He feared that the followers of 
Jesus, who had come up with him from the turbulent 
province of Galilee, although terrified for a moment, might 
attempt to excite the populace of Jerusalem to avenge him ; 
an attempt the more dangerous at that time, as Jerusalem 
was crowded with country people come up for the pass- 

e2 



52 

over. * The place of interment was likely to be resorted to, and 
being in bis own possession or under bis superintendence, 
any disturbances wbicb might arise from the access to, or 
attempts to recover, the remains of Jesus, were likely to be 
laid to his charge, and possibly he might be the next 
victim, f 

He had the body removed from the tomb, or from that 
part of it where the women had seen it laid, and directed the 
agent who remained in charge of the open sepulchre to in- 
form the visitants that Jesus was not there, but that they 
should behold him in Galilee. J The message was first deli- 
vered to Mary Magdalene and her companions, by whom 
and the subsequent narrators, in an interval of time of which 



* There were so many tumults raised on these occasions, that the 
approach of feasts was always regarded with apprehension by the priests. 
Jos. Ant. xvii. 9, 2; x. 2. War, ii. 3, 1. 

f These are some of the considerations on which this conjectural filling 
up of the conduct of Joseph rests : — 

Firstly, Joseph stood in peril. 

Secondly, He was not of a temper to encounter martyrdom. 

Thirdly, On the other hand, he was attached to Jesus and his disciples, 
and would be unwilling to cast them off harshly. 

Fourthly, The expedient in question would seem to meet all these three 
difficulties. 

Fifthly, The character of the disciples, for the most part simple country 
people, and believers in miracles, admitted of its being practised upon them. 

Sixthly, Joseph had better means than any of the disciples of knowing 
what became of the body of Jesus. The total absence, therefore, of his 
important testimony, on either side of the question, confirms the suspicion 
that he had some peculiar motives for silence. 

Seventhly, The conduct and writings of the disciples show that most of 
them were sincere believers in the resurrection and approaching re-appear- 
ance of their master. 

The probabilities respecting the disposal of the remains of Jesus will be 
considered more amply in the chapter on the resurrection. 

% Mark xvi. 5 — 7, " And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young 
man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment ; and they 
were affrighted. And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted ; ye seek Je- 
sus of Nazareth, which was crucified ; he is risen, he is not here ; behold 
the place where they laid him. But go your way, tell his disciples and 



JESUS TO THE END OF THE FIRST CENTURY. 53 

we cannot fix the precise limits, the occurrence was converted 
into the appearance of an angel, of two angels, and finally of 
Jesus himself. 

The disciples at first treated the accounts of the women as 
idle tales j but could not remain unconvinced that the body 
had really disappeared. Thus Jesus seemed to meet with the 
same distinction as Moses, of whose sepulchre no man knew. 
The absence of the lifeless remains allowed full scope for the 
imagination.* The Messiah might expect to be favoured 
with proofs of the Divine approbation similar to those which 
had been granted to the eminent servants of God of old, 
Enoch, Moses, and Elias. He had been raised from the dead, 
some bright cloud had served, like the fiery car of Elias, to 
convey him into heaven, whence they might expect to see 



Peter, that lie goeth before you into Galilee ; there shall ye see him, as he 
said unto you." 

This agrees nearly with the accounts of Matthew and Luke, except that 
Luke mentions two men at the tomb, and Matthew adds an earthquake, 
John says that Mary Magdalene saw the stone taken away when she first 
came, and, on coming a second time, saw the two men or angels. The 
concurrent testimony of the first three, not essentially contradicted by John, 
is thus in favour of the fact, that the women who visited the tomb were told 
by some one there that Jesus was risen, and gone into Galilee. After this 
the four accounts diverge into numberless contradictions. 

It seems very probable that Joseph should endeavour to convey an intima- 
tion to the disciples to return into Galilee. But all the accounts are evi- 
dently coloured from the subsequent ideas of the church, and the attributing 
this message to Joseph is perhaps the most hazardous part of the conjec- 
ture. 

* Luke xxiv. 12. " Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre, and 
stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed 
wondering in himself at that which was come to pass." 

John xx. 6 — 9. " Then cometh Simon Peter, following him, and went 
into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie ; and the napkin that was 
about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a 
place by itself. Then went in also that other disciple which came first to 
the sepulchre, and he saw and believed. For as yet they knew not the 
Scripture, thathe must rise again from the dead." 



54 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE DEATH OF 

him return when the proper time for revealing his kingdom 
should arrive. The mystery of the Messiah's sudden death 
appeared to be thus explained ; the error had been theirs to 
suppose that they knew the right time and season for rescuing 
Israel, which the Father had reserved in his own power. 
Passages of Scripture were remembered, of which the Mes- 
siah's resurrection seemed to afford a new and sublime fulfil- 
ment ;* and every text capable in the remotest manner of af- 
fording this sense supplied additional and indisputable proof 
of the fact. It was natural also to suppose that, in his super- 
human state, Jesus might, before ascending into heaven, make 
himself visible to his faithful followers. Accordingly, ac- 
counts of actual appearances of Jesus soon found their way 
into the narrations of the events attending his supposed re- 
surrection ; imagination or mistake continually afforded fresh 
materials for stories of a kind so honourable to the relator, 
and to the head of the church; and of these stories we have at 
this day such as were current from forty to sixty years after 
the death of Jesus. 

The disciples probably without delay took refuge in Gali- 
lee^ bearing with them the incipient working of these ideas. 
The aim of Joseph and of the priests was attained so far, that 
political disturbances were prevented. But the life and 
teachings of the Nazarene prophet had left an impulse, which 
might be partially diverted from its first channel, but which 
could not be suppressed. 

* See chap. xii. The Jews never expected that the Messiah was to rise 
from the dead. Roseum. Schol. in Esaiam xlii. 

f Matthew's account of the return of the disciples into Galilee meets with 
some confirmation from the last chapter of John ; and is probahle in itself. 
The provincials were always accustomed to return from Jerusalem, after the 
feast, and the alarm of the disciples would hasten their departure. There 
was time for such a journey between the Passover and the day of Pentecost, 
viz. seven weeks. The accounts of Mark, Luke, and John, of the proceed- 
ings after the crucifixion, are so imperfect as to leave room for such a journey. 






JESUS TO THE END OF THE FIRST CENTURY. 55 



Before long, another periodical feast gave the followers of 
Jesus the opportunity of re-assembling at Jerusalem. Of 
these the most confidential, Simon Peter, Andrew, James, 
and John, were fishermen of Galilee, who had followed Jesus 
at first in the hope of sharing the twelve thrones over the 
tribes of Israel, and afterwards from habit and attachment. 
After their long-imagined exaltation into companions of the 
Messiah, they could not return contentedly to obscurity. Al- 
though dismayed at first by the fate of their expected king, 
their hopes easily revived on behalf of a cause for which they 
had forsaken all. The apparently mysterious circumstances 
attending the death of Jesus strengthened their belief in his 
Messiahship, and the expectation of his approaching kingdom 
returned as the belief of his future re-appearance gained 
ground. The leadership of their society seemed due to Peter, 
whom Jesus had distinguished as his chief supporter. To be 
raised to the command over former associates and equals is 
gratifying to men in almost any circumstances; therefore, 
independently of the motives arising from religious zeal and 
a sincere attachment to a common cause, it was natural that 
succeeding to John the Baptist and Jesus, and presiding over 
a company of their followers, although attended with some 
danger, should seem to Peter preferable to casting nets again 
upon the sea of Tiberias. 

The attainment of the Messiah's kingdom by means of a 
national insurrection, if it ever had been contemplated by 
Jesus, had ceased to be so, at latest, after his arrival at Jeru- 
salem ; and now the expectation of his approaching miracu- 
lous re-appearance precluded, on the part of the disciples, any 
idea of a revolution similar to that attempted by their coun- 
tryman Judas twenty-five years previously. They were not 
called upon to act, in order to attain the kingdom, but to wait. 
The company ceased to bear a resemblance to a band of 



56 



HIST( 



missionary revolutionists, and fell into the form of a small re- 
ligious fraternity, having for their bond of union the same 
doctrine as that which had been preached by John the Bap- 
tist, and afterwards by Jesus, viz. the approach of the kingdom 
of heaven foretold by the prophets; as a preparation for 
which, it was necessary for men to repent of the prevailing 
wickedness of the age, and to adopt purity of life. To tbis 
they now added, that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, 
that he had risen from the dead, that he would soon appear 
in his proper character of King of Israel,* and introduce the 
kingdom. 

The Essenes had set the example of societies living in vo- 
luntary union, having their property in common, and acting 
in a remarkable degree on the principles of benevolence and 
moral purity. Jesus had also recommended mutual attach- 
ment as the distinctive sign of his followers. Their society 
bore, therefore, a close resemblance to those of the other Es- 
senes ;f but it was free from the more rigid austerities of 
that sect, and animated by all the new views which Jesus had 
introduced. 

There was much in such a societv to attract the better sort 



* Acts ii. 22 — 40. In this sermon Peter mentions Christ as him who was 
to sit on the throne of David, iii. 13 — 26. Here Peter insists that Jesns 
was he whom the prophets had foretold. All the Jews miderstood this to 
be a great king of Israel, iv. 10—12, 25—27 ; v. 29—32. 

f It seems prohable that most of the disciples were Essenes ; because, 
Firstly, They were neither Pharisees nor Sadducees. Secondly, The Es- 
senes were chiefly of the lower orders. Thirdly, The society formedby them, 
as described in the Acts, resembles closely those of the Essenes generally, 
as described by Josephns. Fourthly, The name Essene never occurs in the 
New Testament, whilst the Pharisees and Sadducees are frequently alluded 
to ; which is singular, except on the supposition that the disciples were Es- 
senes themselves, and have therefore noticed this third important sect under 
the names, brethren, disciples, elect, saints, &c. 

Many members of the previously existing sects might have adopted the 
whole or part of the notions of Judas, without renouncing their own pecu- 
liarities. 



JESUS TO THE END OF THE FIRST CENTURY. 57 

of the Jews. In it were to be found in full force all the 
themes of interest peculiar to their nation, the acknowledg- 
ment of Moses, the law, and the prophets, refreshed by an 
application to present times and events, and by the addition 
of some new and stirring topics. Antiquity alone could not 
maintain the interest of the Mosaic worship amidst the grow- 
ing wants of the age, and the followers of Jesus brought the 
necessary revival. In the system of Moses also there was 
this important omission, that nothing was said of the resur- 
rection of the dead. This doctrine, which had grown up in 
different forms in almost every nation of the world, had 
spread rapidly among the Jews since their contact with the 
Chaldeans. At the time of Christ it was one of the chief 
questions of the day, and its opponents, the Sadducees, were 
a small minority. The asserted resurrection of Jesus strik- 
ingly confirmed the Pharisaic, which was also the popular, 
belief of a resurrection of the dead. Moreover, the favourite 
Jewish notion of the future greatness of their nation was not 
yet laid aside. Even the peaceable Jews, most averse to at- 
tempts at all resembling that of Judas, might feel their ima- 
gination and patriotic feelings attracted to the doctrine of a 
redemption of Israel to be fought for by argument, and at- 
tained by patience, faith, and reformation. Also, the system 
of having all property in common, and of living in a state of 
brotherhood, has many attractions. To all which was added 
the claim of miraculous powers of an unusual extent, sup- 
ported continually by highly-coloured versions of ordinary oc- 
currences, by pious fictions, and, in some fortunate instances, 
by apparently visible proofs.* 

The hundred and twenty persons, therefore, of whom Peter 
and the other apostles found themselves the leaders, were 

* See remarks on the miracles in the Acts, ch. x. 



58 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE DEATH OP 

soon joined by increasing numbers.* The aspect of the 
society became less obnoxious to the Jewish rulers than in 
the lifetime of Jesus, because there was now amongst them 
no living claimant of the throne of David. The doctrine of 
a Messiah to come from heaven did not appear very dan- 
gerous to men of the world ; and in other points the followers 
of Jesus appeared outwardly merely as a new and zealous 
branch of a religious sect, combining many peculiarities 
of the Essenes with a harmless version of Galilean views. 
Besides, the doctrine of the resurrection, which they made 
so prominent, was calculated to conciliate towards them 
the Pharisaic part of the community, f Consequently the 
priests, after some irresolute efforts to stop the Apostles 5 
public preaching, J more calculated to stimulate than effec- 
tually check them, decided upon letting them alone. The 
society soon afterwards became respectable in a worldly sense, 
by the open accession of Barnabas and other men of wealth, 
and in a few years even of part of the priests. § 

This state of calm and prosperity || lasted long enough for 

* By three thousand on the day of Pentecost, or about seven weeks after 
the death of Jesus (Acts ii. 41) ; and by five thousand soon after (Acts 
iv. 4). In this latter case, however, it is only said they believed on Peter's 
preaching, and not, as in the former, that they were baptized and added 
unto them. 

f The Sadducees appear as their chief opponents in the Acts, iv. 1 ; 
v. 17. It is not probable however that the doctrine of the resurrection was 
the main cause of the rigour of the Sadducees (Acts iv. 2), because that 
doctrine had been taught to the people long before. But the Sadducees at 
that time held the priesthood ; they were bound to maintain tranquillity, 
and might naturally fear at first a continuation of the supposed seditious 
designs of Jesus. Acts iv. 18; v. 28, "Ye intend to bring this man's 
blood upon us." 

| Acts iv. 21, So when they had further threatened them, they let them 
go ; v. 38 — 40, And to him (Gamaliel) they agreed : and when they had 
called the Apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should 
not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 

§ Acts iv. 36 ; vi. 7. 

Ii Acts iv. 32 — 34. And the multitude of them that believed were of one 



JESUS TO THE END OF THE FIRST CENTURY, 5^ 

the infant church to become a numerous, compact, and well- 
organized society, appearing to outward observers chiefly as 
a modification of the Essene sect, but having within itself all 
the zeal and vitality which new-born notions usually impart. 
But after a time a question arose which ended in separating 
them from the rest of the Jews, and showing them to the 
world as a distinct body. 

Jesus had himself observed the ritual laws of Moses, and 
had not authorized their disuse. But the spirit of his pre- 
ceptive discourses was to make light of ceremonies in com- 
parison with morality.* Hence Moses and Jesus came to 
appear somewhat at variance ; and as there are always found 
men to widen a difference, some of the new converts went so 
far as to preach that the law of Moses was entirely superseded 
by the new prophet of Nazareth.f This brought the society 
into dislike with the stricter part of the Jews ; a zeal was re- 
kindled for the honour of Moses and the law; the fury of 
part of the populace was excited by the adherents of old cus- 
toms against the supposed innovators; and Stephen, one 
of the most forward of the liberalizing converts, was stoned. 

The decided hostility of the rigid Mosaic party procured to 
the new sect the reputation of indifference, at least, to the: 
laws of Moses. The society thus became an object of perse- 
cution; but was, at the same time, forced into a position 
which more than compensated for the inconveniences re- 



heart and one soul . . . neither was there any among them that lacked, 
vi. 1, And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, 
there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because 
their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. 

* Matt, xxiii. 23. 

f Stephen was accused of having said that " Jesus of Nazareth shall de- 
stroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered." 
Although the writer calls the accusers false witnesses, Stephen does not at 
all contradict this in his defence. Acts vi. vii. 



60 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE DEATH OF 

suiting from the occasional and local attacks of a bigoted 
party. 

The belief in one universal invisible Deity, held by the 
Jews, was so sublime in comparison with the established creeds 
of the neighbouring nations, that when the Jews came to have 
frequent intercourse with them, numbers were inclined to 
embrace Judaism.* It was the only well-defined system of 
monotheism then known, and from the time of Alexander had 
made much progress among the Greeks. The chief obstacle 
was circumcision,t and other inconvenient rites of the Mo- 
saic code. In proportion, therefore, as the new sect became 
unpopular with the most orthodox of the Jews, it became ac- 
ceptable to the Judaizing Gentiles. 

The Essene sect, under its new or Christianized form, now 
counted in its numbers many Jewish priests and men of 
rank; the Pharisees looked upon it favourably ; J and it had 
obtained a reputation for the practice of a purer morality, 
and for superior skill in the interpretation of the prophets. § 
John the Baptist, Jesus, and their followers, had given to it 
great notoriety, and caused it to be regarded as the most 
stirring and active of the Jewish sects ; whilst the peculiar 

* Ezra and Nehemiah passim. Josephus against Apion, book ii. sect. 
40, " Nay, farther, the multitude of mankind itself have had a great incli- 
nation of a long time to follow our religious observances . . . and as God 
himself pervades all the world, so hath our law passed through all the world 
also." 

f See the story of Izates, king of Adiabene, Jos. Antiq. xx. ii. 3. 

% Acts xv. 5 ; xxiii. 9. 

§ Josephus not only mentions this as one of the characteristics of the 
Essenes, but allows them pre-eminence in the gift of prophecy among them- 
selves, and gives several stories in confirmation of it. Antiq. xvii. 13, 3 ; 
xv. 10, 5. " We have thought it proper to relate these facts to our readers, 
how strange soever they be, and to declare what hath happened among us, 
because many of these Essenes have, by their excellent virtue, been thought 
worthy of this knowledge of divine revelations." — War, i. 3, 5. This agrees 
with the stress laid upon the fulfilment of prophecy, and the pretensions to 
prophecy, in the New Testament. 



JESUS TO THE END OF THE FIRST CENTURY. 61 

heresy which had begun to grow up in its bosom was of a na- 
ture more likely to recommend than to inculpate it in the 
eyes of strangers. The philosophic or religious Gentiles,, who 
were inclined towards speculative Judaism, were therefore 
naturally attracted to this sect in preference ; and Cornelius, 
a centurion of Cesarea, sent to Peter a request to be in- 
structed in its doctrines. [A. D. 41.] Peter went to him with 
some of the brethren ; and the interview ended in the con- 
version of Cornelius and his household, who exhibited at its 
close some of the powers regarded by the church as tokens of 
the Holy Spirit, viz., extemporaneous praying and preaching. 
This appeared to Peter sufficient reason for not refusing so 
important a convert, and Cornelius was baptized as a disciple 
of Jesus. On their arrival at Jerusalem, Peter and his friends 
were called to account by the more orthodox or Mosaic part 
of the brethren for admitting Cornelius without circumcision; 
but this objection was silenced by the assertion, that the 
whole affair was conducted in obedience to divine inspiration, 
which was confirmed by the gift of the Holy Spirit to the 
new converts. This first Gentile conversion was soon fol- 
lowed by numerous others ; and the question of the necessity 
of circumcision was kept up as a matter of dispute not only 
between the new sect and the other Jews, but amongst the 
members of that sect itself. Peter and the other leading dis- 
ciples had at first entertained no idea of extending then* so- 
ciety beyond their own nation,* to which the original idea of 
the kingdom of heaven did seem chiefly to apply; but as 
Galileans, their attachment to the ritual law of Moses was 
less firm than that of the Jews of Jerusalem ; and perceiving 
the immense increase to their society which the relaxation of 



* Acts x. 34 — 36, 45; xi. 18, 19. The Ethiopian appears to have been 
a Jewish proselyte. 



62 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE DEATH OF 

the ritual yoke in favour of the Gentiles promised, as well as 
being influenced by the more enlarged spirit which the dis- 
courses of Jesus tended to encourage, they decided upon 
maintaining the liberal principle, and receiving the Gentiles 
as converts on their simple profession of adherence to Jesus 
as the Messiah, leaving every member of their sect free to 
follow the law of Moses or not, according to his own inclina- 
tion and previous habits. This was finally settled by a 
council of the Apostles held at Jerusalem* A. D. 51. But 
even their decision was not received cordially by a large por- 
tion of the Jewish church, who continued to observe strictly 
the laws of Moses, and whose prejudices on this point 
continued so strong, that Peter and James found it difficult 
to avoid occasions of dispute and scandal, in practising the 
liberality which they had sanctioned.f 

About the time of the first Gentile conversion, a modifica- 
tion begins to appear in the character ascribed to the Messiah. 
By the first disciples he had been generally considered as the 
successor of David, and destined to restore the throne of 
Israel. But this was of little interest to the Gentiles. The 
method of interpreting the prophecies then in use easily ad- 
mitted of an extension of the titles and offices of the Messiah, 
and he was invested with a more universally interesting cha- 
racter, that of the destined Judge of mankind. J Distance of 



* Acts xv. According to the custom of the times, the arguments used 
were chiefly, the manifestation of the divine will by means of visible signs, 
and the authority of the prophets. The predictions of the dominion which 
the house of David would obtain over Edom and the heathens were boldly 
strained to signify the conversion of the Gentiles. Peter ventures to in- 
troduce the merely rational argument of the heaviness of- the Mosaic yoke, 
but relies more upon the testimony afforded by the Holy Spirit. 

f Acts xxi. 20; Galatians ii. 12. 

X In the Acts this character is not attributed to Jesus before the sermon 
to Cornelius, x. 42. It occurs again in Paul's discourse to the Athenians, 
xvii. 32. 



JESUS TO THE END OF THE FIRST CENTURY. 63 

time, and unacquaintance with his person, now also began to 
enhance the venerableness of the head of their sect, and to 
prepare men's minds for more exalted notions of his cha- 
racter. 

. The peculiarity of the belief that Jesus of Nazareth was 
the Christ, and the numbers of those holding it, began now 
to procure to the sect a distinctive name ; and the disciples 
were called Christians first at Antioch [A. D. 43]. The dis- 
tinction, however, was not generally attended to till a long 
time afterwards ; and for nearly a century later we find the 
followers of Jesus noticed under various and more general 
names. Among themselves they still used the terms dis- 
ciples, brethren, elect, or saints; by their opponents they 
were called Nazarenes or Galileans ; by friendly Jewish wri- 
ters, Essenes ; whilst the heathens, to most of whom these 
distinctions were unknown or uninteresting, classed them 
loosely as Jews.* 

* The name Christian being for some time probably considered as a de- 
risive epithet, like those of Millenarians, or fifth-monarchy men, it was 
natural for grave and friendly writers, like Philo and Josephus, to prefer 
the use of the older and better-known name of Essenes, which, since the 
death of Jesus, and the modification of their political hopes, would seem 
to suit them tolerably accurately. The following is perhaps an allowable 
conjecture as to the motives of Josephus in omitting an account of Jesus 
Christ (for the absence of quotation before Eusebius, even on the part of 
the Fathers who appealed strenuously to Josephus, combined with the in- 
ternal evidence of forgery, appear sufficient to exclude from consideration 
the celebrated passage Ant. xviii. 3, 3.) : — He looked favourably on the 
Essenes, and, in the many important respects in which the early Jewish 
Christians might be considered as identical with that more ancient sect, 
he has done them ample justice under that name. But the principal fea- 
ture which the doctrine or philosophy of the church exhibited in addition 
to that of the ancient sect, the recognition of a Messiah and a kingdom of 
God soon to appear, Josephus would consider as a part of the notions de- 
rived from Judas, which in his opinion produced all the subsequent mis- 
chiefs. Moreover when he wrote his Antiquities (between A.D. 75 and 93) 
the Christians had very generally forsaken the law of Moses. Hence he 
would regard the church with mixed feelings ; with esteem, as being ori- 
ginally in great part a continuation of the Essene sect ; with impatience, 



64 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE DEATH OF 

The steadfastness of part of the followers of Jesus to the 
law of Moses, was insufficient to remove the taint which had 
adhered to the whole body since the death of Stephen. The 
Jews of Jerusalem were amongst those who cherished most 
sensitively the remnant of their ancient glory embodied in 
the law, and the Roman procurators had frequently been 
astonished at the prompt self-devotion with which citizens 

as to all that constituted novelty : " This new system of philosophy, which 
before we were unacquainted withal," which occasioned " the customs of 
our fathers to be altered." This expresses more than could apply to the 
Sicarii, and other military sectarians, to whom alone, although followers of 
Judas in some important particulars, the appellation of " fourth philosophic 
sect" does not seem very suitable. The pre-eminently religious or philo- 
sophical character of the Christians when Josephus wrote, led him to blend 
all those who held the prominent doctrine of Judas, however they might 
differ in other respects, under one name of fourth philosophic sect. Hence 
his descriptions of both the third and fourth sects are both of them in 
part, but neither of them throughout, applicable to the Christians. Sects 
continually run into each other, especially when they are regarded in a po- 
litical as well as a religious view. Josephus could not foresee that, in a 
century or two, the body of Galilean Essenes beginning to be called 
Christians, would become so much more important than any of the other 
sects, or subdivisions of sects, that he ought to describe a fourth philosophic 
sect under that name, and as made up of those peculiarities alone which 
characterized them. 

With respect to Jesus himself, it is not improbable that the commenda- 
tions which he would have given to him, as to John, in his character of a 
distinguished teacher of the Essene school, were restrained by the appa- 
rent points of resemblance of Jesus to some of the more dangerous follow- 
ers of Judas. He had actually been executed on a charge of sedition 
against the Roman Government. Josephus was anxious that his book 
should be favourably received by the Roman court. Hence he ostenta- 
tiously blames the pretenders to divine aid who excited the hope of liberty 
among the people ; but refrains from applying this directly to Jesus, from 
his real regard for all moral and religious merit. Allowing these different 
feelings to have existed, it is difficult to imagine what he could have said, 
so as to please both himself and his Roman readers. 

It is certainly not impossible that the hand which inserted one passage 
in Josephus, could have taken out another, and that the original copies 
might have contained some allusion to Jesus, which was not approved by 
the Christian corrector. But there is no trace of evidence for this ; and 
the context, in the place referred to, is against the supposition of there 
having been any intermediate passage. 



nd 
ere 



JESUS TO THE END OF THE FIRST CENTURY. -65 

who had submitted to other grievances, resisted to the death 
the slightest infringement of their religious customs. Re- 
peated imperial edicts had enjoined that the religious rites 
of the Jews should not be interfered with, and the procurators 
were in general solicitous only to detect attempts at sedition, 
without concerning themselves with questions relating to the 
Jewish law. But the Sadducees, who frequently held the 
priesthood during the rise of the church, seconded the zeal 
of the Mosaic party, and exerted themselves vigilantly to 
punish every infraction of the law of Moses, influenced per- 
haps less by a reverence for the voice which had spoken from 
the burning bush,* than by the calculation that a more strict 
adherence than ever to the ancient written constitution of 
their ancestors, would be the best means of preserving the 
priesthood from utter extinction.f A body of men suspected 
of an inclination to subvert the laws of Moses would there- 
fore be exposed to unceasing hostility from numerous bigots, 
both interested and disinterested. Herod Agrippa, whose 
kingdom had been extended by Claudius over Judea, had al- 
ready signalized himself by a successful defence of the law, 
and was anxious to conciliate his new subjects by his minute 



* It would be unreasonable to attribute to these free-thinkers of the 
highest rank, a greater degree of faith than appears in Josephus him- 
self. 

f The interference of Herod the Idumean and his successors, and of the 
Roman procurators, had much lowered the dignity of the priesthood since 
the days of the Asmonean dynasty. The most noble Jewish families, both 
Sadducees and Pharisees, were accustomed to share the various offices in 
the priesthood among their members, and were naturally anxious to main- 
tain unimpaired this potent means of wealth and influence. Doctrines de- 
rogatory to the law of Moses struck at its root. Hence probably the 
characteristic mentioned by Josephus ; " The Sadducees are very rigid in 
judging offenders, above all the rest of the Jews," — Antiq. xx. 9, 1 ; a re- 
mark apparently applicable to the period when they so frequently held the 
priesthood. But there can be no doubt that this policy was supported by 
the sincere attachment of many of the Jews to their ancient law* 



66 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE DEATH OF 

religious orthodoxy.* An attempt of some young men of 
Doris to place Caesar's statue in a synagogue, excited the 
ever wakeful jealousy of the Jews, and gave Herod Agrippa 
an opportunity of displaying his zeal.t Although in many 
respects an enlightened and liberal prince, he probably found 
persecution of an obnoxious party an easy means of popu- 
larity, and the doctrines of part of the new sect might serve 
for a pretext as well as the attempt at Doris. James, the 
brother of John, was put to death, and Peter underwent a 
temporary imprisonment. But the persecution does not ap- 
pear to have extended further, and after the death of Herod 
[A.D. 44] the Christians continued to increase. J 

Peter shrank from the odium which he must incur with 
his own countrymen in maintaining the liberal principle 
which he had been the first to advocate. He left to others 
the task of carrying it out to its full extent. The convert 
who took the lead in abrogating the law of Moses in favour 
of the Gentiles, was Saul, afterwards Paul, of Tarsus,, of a 
Gentile nation, but of a family professing the Jewish religion. 
Being a man of a warm and vehement temper, of great 
abilities, of a frank and generous disposition, and of a liberal 
mind, he was qualified to take the foremost part in any 
undertaking to which he joined himself. Educated under a 
Jewish doctor of law, he was well versed in the learning and 
methods of argument of the time, and was fond of striking 
out original views. § He had been, at first, a zealous defender 



* See amongst other proofs, his commanding the Nazarites to have their 
heads shorn. Antiq. xix. 6, 1. 

t Ibid. xix. 6, 3. J Acts xii. 24. 

§ Paul seems to have been very jealous of the originality of his preach- 
ing, and desirous not to be considered a mere follower of the Apostles. 
Gal. ii. 6, But of those who seemed to be somewhat (whatsoever they were, 
it maketh no matter to me, God accepteth no man's person), for they who 
seemed to be somewhat, in conference added nothing to me . . . For he that 



JESUS TO THE END OF THE FIRST CENTURY. 67 

of Mosaic Judaism, * and an enemy to the innovating sect ; 
but their doctrines accorded much better with his own turn 
of mind, as affording more scope for imagination and specu- 
lation than the old and narrow system of Moses. Even 
whilst persecuting the Christians, he could not help becom- 
ing acquainted with their views : the trial of Stephen called 
more general attention to them ; his reflections on the last 
discourse and death of the martyr induced Paul to pause ; 
and the visions and meditations of three years spent at 
Damascus and in Arabia left him a zealous advocate of the 
new sect. But a man of his talents could not be a mere 
follower ; he must impart his own view to the cause which he 
undertook, and it was this, — to announce the fulfilment of 
the Mosaic law by the coming of the Messiah, and to establish 
in its place an universal religion, embracing equally Jew and 
Gentile, f The doctrines of the new sect were a fit basis for 
this enlarged plan, since the recognition of the Christ as their 
common head afforded a point of union ; and the advent of 
the Messiah supposed to be predicted by Moses and the 
prophets was necessary to authorize the assertion that the 
law had been fulfilled, and might be laid aside. As a 
Pharisee, he had held the doctrine of a resurrection in oppo- 
sition to the Sadducees, and the story of the resurrection of 



wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same 
was mighty in me towards the Gentiles. See also Rom. xv. 20 ; ii. 16; 
2 Tim. ii. 8 ; 2 Cor. xi. 5. 

* Gal. i. 13, 14. 

f Rom. x. 12, For there is no difference between the Jew and the 
Greek : for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 
Gal. iii. 28, There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, 
there is neither male nor female : for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. Eph. 
ii. 14, For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken 
down the middle wall of partition between us ; having abolished in his flesh 
the enmity, even the law of commandments, contained in ordinances. 
Gal. vi. 15 ; Eph. i. 10 ; Col. ii. 14 ; Rom. iii. 22—30. 

f2 



68 

Jesus fell in with this belief. The moral preaching of Jesus, 
giving the preference to virtue over ceremonies, was favour- 
able to a liberal plan of religion. The belief, that the office 
of the Messiah was to restore the throne of David, had already 
begun to be modified. The form, then, which the Essene 
Judaism assumed in the hands of Paul was this, — that men 
were everywhere called to repentance and purity of life, in 
order to prepare them for the kingdom of God and the second 
coming of the Messiah or Christ, * whose office was to judge 
the world ; f that Jesus of Nazareth had been proved to be 
the Messiah by being raised from the dead ; and that, in 
order to partake in the privileges of his kingdom, an open 
acknowledgment of his authority, and a belief in his resurrec- 
tion, were alone necessary. J 

The liberalism, of which Jesus had sown the seed, being 
thus developed by Paul, Christianity received from him an 
additional vigorous impulse, and henceforward its progress 
becomes almost identified with that of his preaching and 
labours. 

Among the many pretenders to divine missions who ap- 
peared in Judea, were more than one who deserved to be 
classed as philosophic enthusiasts rather than impostors. 
Simon of Samaria, commonly called Simon Magus, taught 
that emanations of the Divine nature were embodied in him- 
self and in his wife Helena, that he had received a commis- 
sion to subdue the evil influences or daemons, which caused 
the miseries of the world, and to conduct mankind to their 
greatest happiness. He held that matter was the principle 

* Rom. xiv. 17; 1 Cor. i. 7; Phil. iii. 20; 1 Thess. i. 10; ii. 12; 
iii. 13 ; iv. 16 ; v. 2 ; 2 Thess. i. 7 ; 2 Tim. i. 9 ; iv. 1 ; Tit. ii. 12—14. 

f Acts xvii. 31 ; Rom. ii. 16. 

X Rom. x. 9, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and 
shalt believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt 
be saved. Acts xiii. 38 — 41 ; xxvi. 16 — 23; and the Epistles passim. 



JESUS TO THE END OF THE FIRST CENTURY. 69 

farthest removed from the Divine essence, and that the aim 
of philosophy should be to deliver the soul from its imprison- 
ment in matter, and to restore it to the divine light from 
which it was derived ; for which purpose the Deity had sent 
one of his first (Eons or emanations among men. * By means 
of the scientific skill acquired during his visit to Egypt, or 
assisted probably by the audacity proceeding from sincere 
enthusiasm, he was able to perform miracles sufficiently clear 
and numerous to convince multitudes of the Samaritans, from 
the lowest to the greatest, t By this attractive method of 
proof, and by the addition of some doctrines less philosophical 
than those referred to, he had obtained, soon after the death 
of Jesus, an extensive admission of his claim to be called the 
" great power of God." Of his subsequent history few traces 
can be found. J Another Samaritan named Dositheus, offered 
himself to the Jews as their Messiah ; but finding no support 
from them, he endeavoured to persuade the Samaritans that 
he was the prophet predicted by Moses, devoting himself to 
the inculcation of an austere philosophy. Menander, also a 
Samaritan, copied more closely the example of Simon, both 
in his precepts, and in the title assumed, a u great power of 
God." 

The sect of Simon obtained much celebrity near his own 
time, and he was considered by some as the head of the 



* This account of Simon's notions is copied very nearly from Enfield, 
who appears to have collected it from the scattered notices in the Christian 
fathers. 

f Acts viii. 10. 

X The Samaritan fanatic, who " thought lying of little consequence," 
described by Josephus, Ant. xviii. 4, 1. I hesitate to consider the same as 
Simon Magus, because Josephus would most likely have alluded to his 
philosophical character, as he has done in the case of John the Baptist; or 
at least, spoken in less contemptuous terms of the head of a philosophical 
sect. The account coming from a hostile sect, Acts viii., should be received 
with some caution, 



70 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE DEATH OF 

Gnostics. But although his mystical speculations might suit 
the taste of a certain age of philosophy, his precepts and the 
events of his life failed to embody with them enough to 
interest mankind permanently, and after a few centuries his 
name was scarcely remembered. 

Judaism, or the religion of one Deity, as reformed by Paul, 
and disencumbered of circumcision and the Mosaic rites, 
found a ready reception amongst the Greeks and Romans, 
with whom polytheism was nearly grown out of fashion. 
The philosophy of Epicurus had degenerated into sensualism. 
Platonism consisted of speculations unintelligible out of the 
schools. Christianity as preached by Paul was well adapted 
to fill the void in the philosophic and religious world. It 
contained the sublime and agreeable doctrines of the paternal 
character of God and the resurrection of mankind : its as- 
serted miracles and accomplished prophecies, the resurrection 
of Jesus, and the coming judgment of the world, were of a 
nature to please and excite the imagination ; and its frater- 
nal system of society tended to excite emulation and keep up 
enthusiasm. To follow a crucified Jew might be at first a fear- 
ful stumbling-block ; but the mournful fates of Osiris, Adonis, 
and Hercules, followed by a glorious apotheosis, would sug- 
gest parallels sufficient to throw lustre on the story of Jesus ; 
and the Messiah, persecuted to death and raised again, pro- 
bably appealed more strongly to the imagination and the heart 
than if he had appeared merely as another triumphant hero 
demanding allegiance. Besides, the death of Christ came to 
be invested with a mysterious grandeur, by being represented 
as the great antetype of an ancient and venerable system of 
sacrifices, and as the offering of a paschal lamb on behalf of 
all mankind.* 

* The comparison of Christ's death to the lamb killed at the passover was 



JESUS TO THE END OF THE FIRST CENTUHY. 71 

Notwithstanding the cordiality shown towards Paul by 
Peter and James, his claim to rank with the Apostles of 
Jesus met with some opposition, for it might be objected 
that he had not received his appointment from Jesus, nor 
even seen him. But accounts of the appearance of Jesus 
to him in visions supplied this want, and his talents and 
labours soon completed his title to the rank of apostle to 
the Gentiles.* He joined to vehemence an indefatigable 
perseverance, and, being a man of learning and education, 
was superior to vulgar fanatics, in being able to accommodate 
his arguments in some degree to the various tastes of his 
auditors. He taught the Roman officers not to confound 



too obvious not to be frequently introduced by persons familiar with the 
Jewish rites. But it does not appear to be insisted on as a doctrine in the 
New Testament. Even in the Epistle to the Hebrews, it stands in the 
same light as the comparison of Christ as a priest to Melchizedec. 

* The Ebionites, however, i. e. the Jewish Christians who adhered to 
the law of Moses, never admitted the authority of Paul. Iren. 1. i. c. 26. 
al. 25. Orig. Cont. Cel. 1. v. Euseb. H. E. 1. iii. cap. 27. The author of 
the Recognitions of Clement, supposed to be an Ebionite, (Lardner, Cred. 
part ii. ch. 29,) has a passage which seems expressly intended to caution his 
readers against the pretensions of Paul. " Propter quod observate cautius, 
ut nulli doctorum credatis, nisi qui Jacobi fratris Domini ex Hierusalem 
detulerit testimonium, vel ejus quicumque post ipsum fuerit. Nisi enim 
quis illuc ascenderit, et ibi fuerit probatus quod sit doctor idoneus, et fidelis, 
ad praedicandum Christi verbum ; nisi inquam, inde tulerit testimonium, 
recipiendus omnino non est. Sed neque propheta, neque apostolus, in hoc 
tempore, speretur a vobis aliquis alius prseter nos. Unus enim est verus 
propheta, cujus nos duodecim apostoli verba praedicamus. Ipse enim 
est annus Dei acceptus, nos apostolos habens duodecim menses." — L. iv. 
sect. 35. According to which, Paul was excluded from the apostleship, 
for he declared that those at Jerusalem had added nothing to him, and that 
he had not received his commission from men. Gal. i. ii. 

The tone of Irenaeus towards the rejectors of Paul is apologetic rather 
than reprobatory : " Eadem autem dicimus et his qui Paulum apostolum 
non cognoscunt, quoniam aut reliquis verbis Evangelii, quae per solum 
Lucam in nostram venerunt agnitionem, renuntiari debent, et non uti eis ; 
aut si ilia recipiunt omnia, habent necessitatem recipere etiam earn testifica- 
tionem quae est de Paulo." — Cont. Haer. 1. iii. 15. i. 



72 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE DEATH OF 

the followers of Christ with Galilean movers of sedition.* 
Before Jewish synagogues he quoted chiefly the law and the 
prophets j f with the Gentiles he could also argue from their 
own authors, or appeal to natural reason. J Such a man 
could not fail to be heard in any country ; and within twenty- 
four years from his conversion, [A. D. 37 — 61 J he and his 
companions had planted numerous churches in Asia Minor, 
several in Macedonia and Greece, and one at Rome. 

The society in Judea fell now comparatively into the shade. 
Its chiefs, Peter and James, the brother of Jesus, were in 
education and ability inferior to Paul ; and their sanction of 
the admission of Gentiles into the church without conformity 
to the law of Moses, had brought them into an unfavourable 
position with respect to their countrymen, who in general 
were more attached to their ancient code than the Greeks 
were to their variegated idolatry. The greater part of the 
Jewish church itself seems to have withstood the authority of 
the council of apostles, and to have insisted on the necessity 
of the Mosaic law. § It is probable that the liberality of the 
heads of the Jewish church, and the bigotry of its members, 
both contributed to bring it into disrepute ; the former with 
the Jews, the latter with the Gentiles. The first rapid in- 
crease of the Jewish church was therefore checked ; but it 
was too numerous to be rooted out by occasional acts of 
violence. 

Whilst the followers of Jesus, during the thirty years subse- 
quent to his death, were thus acquiring permanently the cha- 

* Acts xxiii. 29 ; xxiv. 10 — 23 ; xxvii. 3. 

f Acts xiii. 33 — 41 ; xxviii. 23. 

X Acts xiv. 15—17; xvii. 24—29. 

§ Acts xxi. 18 — 26. James and the elders remonstrate thus with Paul : 
" Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which be- 
lieve, and they are all zealous of the law," and urge him to perform a 
Mosaic rite in order to conciliate them, 



JESUS TO THE END OF THE FIRST CENTURY. 73 

racter of a mere religious sect, and, in so far as they retained 
any peculiarities derived from Judas, modifying and enlarg- 
ing them into doctrines which at first sight might appear 
hardly capable of being identified with the original notions ; 
— others in Judea preserved more accurately the impressions 
left fifty-four years previously by the daring and martial Ga- 
lilean. The spiritual disposition of the Essenes, during an 
interval of comparative political quiet, predominated in the 
fusion with the Galilean ideas ; the church had lost all thoughts 
of obtaining deliverance except from the arm of the Lord, 
and occupied itself chiefly with the development of its reli- 
gious doctrines. It is probable even that, in consequence of 
the occasional persecutions which they had undergone from 
their countrymen, and the interest inspired by the extensive 
Gentile conversions, they looked, by this time, to the ex- 
pected deliverance less as a national restoration of Judea, 
than as the exaltation of the Messiah's people gathered from 
every clime. But enthusiasts were not wanting from time to 
time, who sought to attain a political revival, by means of a 
combination of divine aid with physical insurrection. In the 
procuratorship of Fadus [about A. D. 46], a pretender to mi- 
raculous and prophetic powers, named Theudas, persuaded 
many of the people to follow him, promising a sign similar to 
that which accompanied the deliverance under Moses, a mira- 
culous passage through the waters. The Roman procurator 
was more fortunate than Pharaoh, and the attempt speedily 
cost the imitator his life.* Under the following procurator, 



* The following is all that I can find relating to Theudas. " Now it 
came to pass, while Fadus was procurator of Judea, that a certain magician 
whose name was Theudas, persuaded a great part of the people to take their 
effects with them, and follow him to the river Jordan ; for he told them he 
was a prophet, and that he would, by his own command, divide the 
river, and afford them an easy passage over it : and many were deluded 



74 HISTORICAL SKETCH^ FROM THE DEATH OF 

Tiberius Alexander, the sons of Judas, James and Simon, were 
put to death, but on what occasion Josephus does not state. 
Many restless and unprincipled men, professing to aim at 
the same object as Judas, freedom from the rule of all Lords 
except that of the God of Israel, made this a mere pretext for 
gratifying their love of disorder and plunder. The supremacy 
of the Kingdom of heaven afforded too plausible an excuse 
for numbers whose bad character set them in opposition to 
all earthly subjection. Bands of the vilest robbers and as- 
sassins disgraced a cause which had probably originated in an 
effervescence of sincere patriotic and religious zeal ; and, from 
the government of Cumanus till the end of the war, the in- 
creasing recklessness and ferocity of the advocates of the Ga- 
lilean notions under the names of Sicarii, zealots, and sedi- 
tious, form a striking contrast with the diverging course of that 
pacific body of men, which at one time had seemed to have some 
remarkable points of contact with them.* The increasing 
miseries which those bands of warlike sectaries brought upon 



by his words. However, Fadus did not permit them to make any advan- 
tage of his wild attempt, but sent a troop of horsemen out against them ; 
who, falling upon them unexpectedly, slew many of them, and took many 
of them alive. They also took Theudas alive, and cut off his head, and car- 
ried it to Jerusalem." — Antiq. xx. 5, 1. 

" For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be some- 
body, to whom a number of men, about 400, joined themselves; who was 
slain, and all, as many as obeyed (or believed) him (eireiOovro avrw) were 
scattered and brought to nought." — Acts v. 36. 

* From the few materials remaining it is not easy to mark accurately the 
course of the different divisions of the Essenes and Galileans. There ap- 
pears most palpable confusion in the following passage from Rabbi Abra- 
ham in libro Juchasin, fol. 139, 1. " At this time there were three sects, for 
besides the Pharisees and Sadducees, Judas the Galilean began a third sect, 

which is called that of the Essenes the opinion of the Nazarenes, 

who were called Essenes, and the author of whom was Judas the Galilean. 
They indeed occasioned the Jews to rebel against the Romans, saying, that 
no one ought to command other men, nor to be called Lord, except God 
alone." On which Schoettgen remarks (Hor. Heb. in Act. v. 37,) that this 



JESUS TO THE END OF THE FIRST CENTURY. 75 

Judea, their cruelties especially upon the more timid portion 
of their countrymen, prevent our feeling that full admiration 
which would otherwise have been due to their untameable reso- 
lution in asserting to the last their country's independence.* 
In the procuratorships of Felix and Festus, the attempts of 
false prophets became again very frequent. An Egyptian, 
who had induced a multitude to follow him to the Mount of 
Olives, to witness the result of his command to the walls of 
Jerusalem to share the fate of those of Jericho, narrowly es- 
caped with his life from the merciless vigilance of Felix; 
whose excuse for slaughtering so promptly a deluded multi- 
tude would probably have been, that there was too much rea- 
son to apprehend that these trials of faith would be followed 
by trials more dangerous to his government.-}; His severity 

must be false, because the Essenes existed long before Judas ; yet he thinks 
it very likely that Judas was " Essenorum partibus addictus, although not 
the author of the sect." 

May not the confusion of R. Abraham be unravelled thus : — Many of 
the Essenes adopted part of the doctrines of Judas, and settled afterwards 
into that sect, of which one appellation was Nazarenes ? 

* It is not improbable that 1 Peter ii. 13 — 17, might have been sug- 
gested by the desire felt on the part of the church to vindicate itself from 
the imputation of abusing the doctrine of subjection to God alone. Peter 
urges the brethren (probably converted Gentiles) of Asia Minor, to obey 
" the king" "and governors" — "for so is the will of God, that with well- 
doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men : as free, and not 
using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness (ttjs ica/cias), but as servants of 
God." This describes exactly the abuse of the doctrines of Judas by the 
Sicarii, which might very naturally be a subject of allusion to Christians 
elsewhere than in Judea. 

f " And now these impostors and deceivers persuaded the multitude to 
follow them into the desert, and pretended that they would exhibit mani- 
fest wonders and signs, that should be performed by the providence of God, 
And many that were prevailed on by them suffered the punishments of their 
folly ; for Felix brought them back, and then punished them. Moreover, 
there came out of Egypt about this time to Jerusalem, one that said he was 
a prophet, and advised the multitude of the common people to go along with 
him to the Mount of Olives, as it was called, which lay over against the city, 
and at the distance of five furlongs. He said farther, that he would show 
them from hence, how, at his command, the walls of Jerusalem would fall 



76 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE DEATH OF 

was imitated by Festus in the case of another self-deluded 
victim and his followers, who trusted that an assemblage of 



down ; and he promised them that he would procure them an entrance into 
the city through those walls, when they were fallen down. Now when Fe- 
lix was informed of these things, he ordered his soldiers to take their wea- 
pons, and came against them with a great number of horsemen and footmen, 
from Jerusalem, and attacked the Egyptian and the people that were with 
him. He also slew 400 of them, and took 200 alive. But the Egyptian 
himself escaped out of the fight, but did not appear any more. And again 
the robbers stirred up the people to make war with the Romans, and said 
they ought not to obey them at all ; and when any persons would not com- 
ply with them, they set fire to their villages, and plundered them." — Ant. 
xx. 8, 6. It is worthy of note that the people of Jerusalem assisted Felix 
in his attack on the Egyptian. 

" There was also another body of wicked men gotten together, not so im- 
pure in their actions, but more wicked in their intentions, who laid waste 
the happy state of the city no less than did these murderers. These were 
such men as deceived and deluded the people under pretence of divine in- 
spiration, but were for procuring innovations and changes of the govern- 
ment ; and these prevailed with the multitude to act like madmen, and went 
before them into the wilderness, as pretending that God would there show 
them the signals of liberty; but Felix thought this procedure was to be the 
beginning of a revolt ; so he sent some horsemen and footmen, both armed, 
who destroyed a great number of them." — War, ii. 13, 4. 

The hasty supposition of the Roman captain, Acts xxi. 38, that Paul 
might be the escaped Egyptian, seems very natural, since Paul belonged to 
a sect partly of Galilean origin. The Roman officers could not be ex- 
pected to distinguish at once between the Essene version of the Messiah's 
kingdom, and that of bands who sought nominally the same kingdom, 
by less harmless means. But Paul was very leniently treated by the Ro- 
man judges, as soon as they could be made to understand in some degree 
his real character. 

The Roman captain describes the followers of the Egyptian as " mur- 
derers," which agrees with Josephus's description of the "Sicarii," {Ant. 
xx. 8, 10.) the bands whom he seems to consider more especially the inhe- 
ritors of the doctrines of Judas. {War, vii. 8. 1.) 

Schoettgen surely makes the same mistake as the captain when he says, 
" llli Esseni, et quidem sectatores hujus Judag, vocati vulgo sunt aiKapioi 
Jos. de Bello Jud. 7, 29. Scholia Graeca in Act. xxi. *A\\oi 5e Ea-arjuovs 
smapiovs enaXow, tfyow fjjAorras : citante Drusio de tribus sectis Hebr. 4, 21. 

In Josephus, the Essenes are never called Sicarii or Zealots ; of the first 
he speaks with the highest respect ; of the latter two classes with detesta- 
tion. This, together with the very different characters of the sects, must 
prevent our supposing that any considerable portion of the Essenes became 
.Sicarii. But we may perceive how easily they might be confounded : the 






JESUS TO THE ETOOF THE FIRST CENTURY. 77 

Israelites retiring into the desert, might again awaken the 
compassion of the God of their fathers.* 

Whilst the next procurator, Albinus, was on his road to 
Judea, [A. D. 62,] the high priest Ananus, a young Sadducee 
of a violent temper, assembled the Sanhedrim in an irregular 
manner, and brought an accusation against the brother of 
Jesus of Nazareth, James the Just, (who had succeeded Peter 
in the presidency of the church, after A. D. 51,) and some 
other members, as breakers of the law.f He succeeded 
in having them stoned; J but, in the dislike which the 
most equitable of the citizens felt towards this proceeding of 
Ananus, in their stigmatizing it as a breach of the law, and 
in their procuring the deposition of the turbulent high priest 
on this very account, we find striking indications that the 
church must have usually enjoyed that security and tole- 
ration which its peaceful character merited, and that it was 

followers of Judas became chiefly Sicarii ; the Essenes had adopted some 
of the notions of Judas, but they became — Christians. 

* So Festus sent forces, both horsemen and footmen, to fall upon those 
that had been seduced by a certain impostor, who promised them deliver- 
ance and freedom from the miseries they were under, if they would but 
follow him as far as the wilderness. Accordingly those forces that were 
sent destroyed both him that had deluded them, and those that were his 
followers also." — Ant. xx. 8, 10. 

f Ant. xx. 9, 1 . The agreement between Josephus and the Acts is re- 
markable. The former says that the accusation was for breaking the law, 
and that " some others" were included in it. James was at the head of 
the liberals respecting the Mosaic law, and some of the elders agreed with 
him. 

% Hegesippus said that James was killed in a tumult, by being thrown 
down from the temple, assaulted with stones, and at last struck on the 
head by a fuller's pole ; which account was generally received by the 
Christians in and before the fourth century. See Lardner, Jewish Test., 
chap. iv. This does not essentially disagree with Josephus, for the irre- 
gular sentence might have been carried into effect in an irregular manner. 
Lardner however is inclined to reject this passage in Josephus, chiefly, it 
appears, because he does not consider it to agree with Hegesippus. But of 
the two it would be reasonable to reject the account of the latter, part of 
which Lardner himself admits to have a fabulous appearance. 



78 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE DEATH OF 

favourably regarded rather than otherwise by many of the 
most influential as well as just citizens.* This martyrdom of 
James consequently left the church in the same tranquil po- 
sition under his successor Simeon. 

Notwithstanding the occasional interruptions referred to, 
Judea enjoyed upon the whole under the procuratorships of 
Fadus, Alexander, Cumanus, Felix, and Festus [A. D. 45-63], 
a long interval of comparative tranquillity. Their govern- 
ment, although rigid, was not in the main wantonly oppres- 
sive ; and their severity towards robbers and exciters of tu- 
mults was beneficial to the peaceably disposed.f But the 
next procurator, Albinus, [A. D. 63,] pushed his extortions so 
far as to rouse even the nobles to thoughts of resistance. 
Even he was outdone in cruelty by the following governor, 
Gessius Florus, [64,] who, in order to provide an excuse with 
the Roman court, endeavoured deliberately, according to Jo- 
sephus, to goad the Jews to a revolt. Under these two, 
Judea became a scene of tumult and misery. J The populace, 
exasperated by repeated insults and oppressions, were with 
increasing difficulty restrained by the aristocracy from com- 
promising the nation by open rebellion ; the influence of the 

* Josephus does not say a single word expressive of his own opinion of 
James, " the brother of Jesus who was called Christ, and his companions ;" 
except that he evidently agrees with those " equitable citizens" who re- 
probated the violence used towards them. This very silence seems to in- 
dicate some degree of respect. In the following paragraphs he has occa- 
sion to mention the Sicarii, and shows very manifestly his abhorrence of 
them. This difference of tone is a confirmation that his description of the 
Essenes, in a much greater degree than that of the Galileans, applies to 
the early church. 

f Acts xxiv. 2, u Seeing that by thee (Felix) we enjoy great quietness." 
The testimony of Tertullus might have been considered as mere rhe- 
toric, if it were not confirmed by Josephus, Preface to War, sect. 4 : — 
" It had so come to pass that our city, Jerusalem, had arrived at a greater 
degree of felicity than any other city under the Roman Government, and 
yet at last fell into the sorest calamities again." 

% Jos., War, ii. ch. xiv. to the end. 



JESUS TO THE END OF THE FIEST CENTURY. 79 

priests and Pharisees succumbed to that of the Sicarii, Zea- 
lots, and Pseudo-prophets ;* and it became daily more evi- 
dent that a revolution was near, which, considering the 
strength of the Romans, must end in the destruction of the 
nation.f The fatal prelude was given [A. D. 66], when 
Floras, having been foiled in an attempt to seize the treasure 
in the temple, invited Cestius, president of Syria, to his as- 
sistance. Cestius came with a division of the Roman army, 
(8 Nov.) and was beaten.J The national spirit broke out in 
a general cry for war; but the more prudent saw that a 
heavy vengeance must soon follow. 

In these perilous times of their country, the peculiar doc- 
trines of the Christians of Judea had a tendency to preserve 
them from danger. They believed that their Messiah was 
already come, and that he was soon to appear from heaven 
with deliverance for his saints ; they were secure, therefore, 
from the attempts of new pretenders. The habit of contem- 
plating a kingdom to be revealed from heaven at God^s 
appointed time, agreed with the spiritual tendency which had 
always characterized the Essenes, in drawing off the thoughts 
of the Christians from the politics of the moment to the more 
interesting and permanent world of the imagination. The* 
things of the flesh, the contentions of parties and nations,, 
might be despised in comparison with the things of the 
spirit, the anticipation of the glories which were destined to> 
reward the patient faith of the elect. The Jewish Christians 
had become an almost isolated people in the midst of the 
Jews, and the office of the Messiah seems to have been 
among them, as well as among the Gentiles, raised into that 



* That the Pharisees continued to be strenuous conservatives, see War, 
ii. 17, 3. 

f Speech of Agrippa, War, ii. 16. 
t War, ii. ch. xix. 



80 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE DEATH OF 

of Judge of mankind.* They therefore looked upon their 
fate as distinct from that of the rest of their nation, and were 
probably among those who, according to Josephus, withdrew 
from Jerusalem after the defeat of Cestius, as from a devoted 
city.f Their place of retreat is supposed to have been at 
Pella, beyond the Jordan. 

At this time, probably, the opinion became most prevalent 
that the end of the world was near. J During the thirty- 
three years which had elapsed since the disappearance of the 
body of Jesus from the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, the 
Christians had believed that he would speedily re-appear; 
and now the approaching dissolution of the Jewish state, and 
the abolition of the temple and laws which the Scriptures had 
declared perpetual, seemed not only to show that his re- 
appearance was at length nigh at hand, but that it would be 
accompanied by the end of all earthly things. § The storm 

* Matt. xxv. In the epistles of Peter, Jude, and James, there are no 
allusions to the kingdom of Israel, or throne of David, so often mentioned 
in the early speeches in the Acts. When the kingdom of Christ is spoken 
of, it is no longer peculiarly connected with the Jewish nation. 1 Peter v. 
4; 2 Peter hi. 13 ; James ii. 5. 

f War, ii. xxi. " After this calamity had befallen Cestius, many of the 
most eminent of the Jews swam away from the city as from a ship when it 
was going to sink." The probability that the Christians were among these, 
is confirmed by the exhortations to flight found in the first three Gospels, 
and the testimony of Eusebius that some of the Christians went to Pella. 

X The punishment of the Jewish nation is frequently described in the Old 
Testament in terms which might be understood to signify the destruction 
of the whole earth. Deut. xxxii. 22. Jer. iv. 23 — 28. Isaiah xxiv. 4 — 23. 
Amos viii. 2, 9. 

§ James v. 8, Be ye also patient ; establish your hearts ; for the coming 
of the Lord draweth nigh. 1 Peter i. 7, That the trial of your faith might 
be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus 
Christ ; i. 20, Christ was manifested in these last times for you ; iv. 7, But 
the end of all things is at hand ; iv. 17. For the time is come that judgment 
must begin at the house of God. 

Lardner conjectures the date of Peter's 1st Epistle to be 63, 64, or 65 ; 
of Jude's Epis. 64, 65, or 66; of James's Epis. 61. These dates fall 
within the time when the Jews began to anticipate the miseries to come. 



JESUS TO THE END OF THE FIRST CENTURY. 81 

burst upon the Jews in the beginning of the year A. D. 67, 
when Vespasian entered Galilee with a large army. The 
vigorous defence made by the towns of that province detained 
him there till nearly the end of the year; after which the 
death of Nero [A. D. 68, June 10,] induced him to suspend 
his operations, which, on his own accession, [A. D. 69, July 
3,] were resumed by his son Titus. During this interval, 
Jerusalem had suffered such miseries from internal seditions, 
that the arrival of the Romans was expected by many as a 
relief. Zacharias, the son of Baruch, one of the most emi- 
nent citizens, was murdered in the temple,* [A. D. 68,] and 



* Jos., War, iv. ch. v. ; Matt, xxiii. 35. Lardner concludes that the 
Zacharias, son of Barachias, mentioned in Matthew, was Zacharias, the son 
of Jehoiada, killed in the court of the temple, 2 Chron. xxiv. (Credib., part i. 
book ii. ch. vi.) But the following reasons lead me to think that Josephus 
and Matthew intended the same person : Firstly, The names given to the 
father, Baruch and Barachias, although distinct in the Greek, might easily 
be confounded. Secondly, Although Jerome said that the Nazarenes had, 
in their copy of Matthew, " the son of Jehoiada," Lardner allows that it was 
probably an insertion, and that the copies of Matthew generally from the 
earliest times, had "son of Barachias." Thirdly, The purport of the dis- 
course in Matthew is, that the Jews of that generation would suffer for all 
the righteous blood shed upon the earth ; and as he begins with Abel, he 
was not likely to stop at the Zacharias in the Chronicles, B. C. 840, when 
there was abundance of righteous blood shed among the Jews after that 
date ; whereas the murder of the Zacharias mentioned by Josephus was 
probably, at the time when Matthew wrote, a recent and notorious event. 
Fourthly, It would not appear to the writer of the gospel inconsistent to 
make Jesus, thirty-three years beforehand, speak of this Zacharias, since he 
represents him as speaking of many other events connected with the fall of 
Jerusalem in the spirit of prophecy. Fifthly, The characters agree in Mat- 
thew and Josephus ; the former speaks of righteous blood, the latter says 
that Zacharias was one of the most eminent citizens, for his riches, his ha- 
tred of wickedness, and his love of liberty ; moreover " that he confuted in 
a few words the crimes laid to his charge, and turning his speech against 
his accusers, went over distinctly all their transgressions of the law, and 
made heavy lamentations upon the confusion they had brought public affairs 
to ;" which resembles very much the discourse in Matthew, containing the 
mention of Zacharias. Sixthly, Although Luke, in the parallel passage, xi. 
47 — 51, appears to speak of Zacharias as being one of the prophets, this 



82 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE DEATH OF 

his death, was the beginning of a series of daily riots and 
massacres. The profanation of the temple seemed especially 
to forebode the approaching ruin of the state ; because the 
book of Daniel had described the pollution of the sanctuary 
as preparatory to the times of the end.* The siege of Jeru- 
salem was begun on the 14th of April, A. D. 70 ; it was 
defended with the most desperate bravery for nearly five 
months, and taken on the 8th September, after suffering the 
worst extremities which can befal a besieged city. The 
temple was burnt, the entire city demolished excepting three 
towers, and henceforward the Jews cease to appear as a poli- 
tical power in history. 

During the siege, the military sectarians who had insti- 



might arise from his being ignorant of the transaction which Matthew had 
in view ; for one of the many murders committed during the fall of Jeru- 
salem might easily be unknown to a foreigner writing some years after- 
wards, and at a distance. But Zacharias, son of Barachias, one of the 
minor prophets, was well known to all the Christians. Luke, therefore, 
supposed that Matthew had this Zacharias in view, and consequently 
adapted his version of the discourse to this notion. Seventhly, Matthew 
did not really intend this last-named Zacharias, because no record appears 
to have existed among the Jews of the manner of his death, and in his 
time the temple was in ruins. Eighthly, Admitting the conjecture, that the 
original of Matthew mentions no father, but simply Zacharias, as in Luke, 
the insertion of son of Barachias instead of Baruch, is explained by the 
transcribers generally, as well as Luke, having a better knowledge of the 
prophet than of any other Zacharias. 

* Dan. xi. 31 — 40. The book of Daniel refers to the events in the time 
of Antiochus Epiphanes (see chap, xiv.) ; but many of the Jews considered 
it as a prophecy of the future. Josephus says, (War, iv. ch. 6,) " There 
was a certain antient oracle of those men (the prophets) that the city should 
then be taken, and the sanctuary burnt by right of war, when a sedition 
should invade the Jews, and their own hand should pollute the temple of 
God." The passages most resembling this are, Daniel ix. 26, xi. 31 — 45 ; 
but Josephus has quoted them incorrectly, and added to them from his own 
invention, as he frequently does when quoting the Old Testament from 
memory. See his account of Pharaoh Necho's seizure of " Queen Sarah, 
whom Abraham preferred to recover by means of prayer to God, instead of 
employing his 318 captains with an immense army under each." — War, 
Book v. ch. ix. 



JESUS TO THE END OF THE FIRST CENTURY. 83 

gated the revolt,, exhibited a persevering gallantry which 
extorts our admiration in spite of their atrocious cruelties. 
Whatever of religion influenced them, was directed to the 
extinction of all the milder feelings, and to the inflaming of 
the sterner passions into madness.* The experienced legions 
of Rome under the eye of Titus himself, were repeatedly 
broken by the fierce attacks of the Jews; the besiegers, when 
retiring to rest after the incessant contests of the day, were 
surprised by nocturnal sallies ; their works were burnt, and 
the red-hot engines dragged away by the hands of the Jews, 
in despite of guards and fortifications ; and the short inter- 
vals of security obtained by the repulse of the Romans, were 
employed in the murder or torture of the citizens supposed to 
be favourable to a capitulation. The prophets were en- 
couraged to announce from day to day the approach of 
divine aid ; and in the last extremity, when the temple was 
burning, and the streets were filled with the infuriated 
Romans, a multitude assembled in the cloisters of the temple, 
and whilst the soldiers and the fire were closing upon them, 
confidently trusted that now the moment was come when 
God would appear to save his people. 

The fortress of Masada, occupied by a remnant of the 
Sicarii, under Eleazar the grandson of Judas, held out the 
longest against the Roman arms. When reduced to the last 
distress, the besieged slew their families, and then themselves, 
having first set fire to the place. The speech which Josephus 
attributes to Eleazar, f rejecting in this melancholy extremity 



* Unless the internal dissensions and factions had assisted the Romans, 
it appears not incredible that the Jews might have compelled their invaders 
to admit an honourable compromise, and furnished an instance of the suc- 
cessful resistance of a less civilized but valiant nation, against superior 
strength and discipline. 

t War, vii. 8, 6. 

G2 



84 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE DEATH OF 

all thoughts of submission to any Lords but God alone, 
breathes unimpaired the fierce independence of his ancestor, 
and is not unworthy of being considered as the funeral 
oration of an ancient people. Some of the Sicarii escaped 
from Judea into Egypt, whence they endeavoured to revive 
from time to time the energies of the remaining Jews, and 
to render their country an uneasy acquisition to the con- 
querors. 

The priest and Pharisee, Josephus, who had endeavoured 
to prevent the war, but, when it was once begun, had per- 
formed his part in the common defence with eminent valour 
and skill until he was taken prisoner, was received into favour 
by Vespasian, and lived to write the history which records so 
amply the fate of his nation, and throws so much light upon 
the important moral movement which arose out of its latter 
period. His religion comprised at least as much of philosophy 
and worldly tact as of superstition ; and adopting the safe 
method of interpreting prophecies by the event, he com- 
plimented Vespasian as being the Messiah whom his country's 
prophets had announced.* The remainder of the Jewish 
people, however, could not be turned aside, even by the sight 



* War, vi. 5, 4, " But now, what did most elevate them in undertaking this 
war, was an ambiguous oracle that was also found in their sacred writings, 
how, ' about this time, one from their country should become governor of 
the habitable earth.' The Jews took this prediction to belong to them- 
selves in particular ; and many of the wise men were thereby deceived in 
their determination. Now this oracle certainly denoted the government of 
Vespasian, who was appointed emperor in Judea." The deception of some 
" wise men" also, indicates strongly that Josephus alludes to the current 
Jewish notion of a Messiah, because this was a favourite topic with the 
Rabbins. He perhaps avoided using the Jewish designation Messiah, or 
its Greek form Christ, because he judged his own interpretation of it to be 
more suitable and intelligible to his Roman readers than the name itself; 
also possibly, because at the time of his writing the books of the War 
(probably about A.D. 75), the name was beginning to be considered as dis- 
tinctive of a recent Jewish sect. 



JESUS TO THE END OF THE FIRST CENTURY. 85 

of their desolated towns, from the more patriotic interpreta- 
tion of their sacred writings. After about sixty years, the 
brilliant but brief success of Barcochebas seemed for a 
moment to prove the correctness of this interpretation. From 
the time of his failure, the hope of the future appearance of 
David's successor and of the re-assembling of the tribes of 
Jacob, has lingered amongst the persecuted nation ; — a hope 
so continually enlivened by their history, poetry, and most 
interesting associations, that when the desires of the children 
of Israel shall at length be seconded by a train of concurring 
circumstances, it is perhaps not unreasonable to conjecture 
that it may yet in some measure be fulfilled. 

The sect which, whilst Judea was being conquered by 
Rome, was preparing Judaism to conquer the Roman Gods, 
also allowed events to modify materially its interpretation of 
the prophecies. The ruin of the Jewish state fixed more per- 
manently the character of the Messiah to that of a Spiritual 
King. If, as such, he appeared to rigid critics in many 
respects to differ essentially from those prefigurations, the 
church was soon able to point at least to one very important 
resemblance, that of a triumphant ruler. 

Most of the leading Jewish Christians emigrated to fo- 
reign countries, and became incorporated with the Gentile 
churches. But those who still adhered to the law of Moses 
clung to their native land. When the war was over, they 
are supposed to have returned from Pella to Jerusalem, and 
to have maintained a church there till the time of Adrian, 
who, after the revolt of Barcochebas, prohibited the Jews 
from coming to Jerusalem.* From that time the church at 



* Euseb. on the Heresy of the Ebionites, 1. 3, cap, 27, " Some who are 
not to be moved by any means from their respect for the Christ of God, are 
in some respects very infirm. They are called by the ancients Ebionites, 
because they have but a low opinion of Christ, thinking him to be a mere 



86 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE DEATH OF 

Jerusalem consisted of Gentiles. From the notices which 
remain of the society of the Jewish Christians, under the 
names of Nazarenes and Ebionites, it seems to have fallen 
into great disrepute with the rest of the Christians. Their 
persevering Judaism, and aversion to Paul, prevented the 
Gentile churches from amalgamating with them, or from 
showing them that respect and attachment which would 
otherwise have seemed due to the relics of the parent society. 
And as the Gentile churches became the most influential 
part of the Christian body, and supplied the chief Christian 
writers, they were able to procure general reception to their 
own representation of the point of difference ; and conse- 
quently the remnant of the early converts, the countrymen 
and possibly some of the hearers, of Jesus himself, have 
come to be classed in church history amongst the early here- 
tics. 

About the time of the fall of Jerusalem, [A. D. 68 — 70,] 
the history of Christ, bearing the name of Matthew, was 
published amongst the Christians of Judea. It contained 
most of the accounts which had been preserved of the acts 
and discourses of Christ, mingled with traditions of a later 
growth, and with passages representing the ideas then preva- 

man, born of Joseph and Mary, honoured for his advancement in virtue ; 
and esteeming the ritual ordinances of the law necessary to be observed by 
them, as if they could not be justified by faith in Christ only. Others of 
them do not deny that Jesus was born of a virgin by the Holy Ghost. 
Nevertheless, they do not acknowledge his pre-existence as God the Word ; 
and, like the others, they are fond of the external observances of the law of 
Moses. They also reject Paul's epistles, and call him an apostate from the 
law." Jerome speaks of the Nazarenes in his time, A. D. 400, as admit- 
ting the authority of Paul. The preponderating influence of the Gentile 
churches, no doubt, gradually procured admission amongst the Nazarenes 
for the canon of scriptures as fixed by the former. According to Jerome, 
soine of the Ebionites or Nazarenes followed the liberal example of Peter 
and James, and observed the Mosaic rites themselves without seeking to 
impose them on others; (Hieron. in Is. cap. i. t. 3. ;) but the intolerance 
of the rest might easily alienate the Gentiles from their whole body. 






JESUS TO THE END OF THE FIRST CENTURY. 87 

lent in the Jewish church. It was well received by the 
Christians, and in a few years was followed by many imita- 
tions, of which there only remain those of Mark and Luke ; 
the former written for the use of the church at Borne, and 
the latter for those of Achaia. Both these writers seem to 
have made use of Matthew's work, altering some parts in 
order to adapt it the better for the use of Gentile churches, 
and adding such narratives as they had been able to procure 
from other sources. 

These three histories bear the impress of the events and 
opinions of the age in which they were written.* They 
contain copious references to the fall of Jerusalem, and to 
the persecutions which the church began to undergo amongst 
the Gentiles about that time.f The coming of Jesus is re- 
presented as near at hand, and as cotemporary with the end 
of all things. He is described occasionally as the Judge of 
mankind, in addition to his original character of King of 
Israel and Successor of David. And the kingdom of heaven 
is a confused mixture of regenerated Israel and of a kingdom 
not of this world. 

The distance of thirty-seven years from the death of Christ, 
and of seventy from his birth, allowed of the introduction of 
many fables concerning his person and character ; and about 
this time arose the doctrine of the miraculous conception. 
The Gospel of Matthew is the earliest Christian writing in 
which this doctrine is found ; but it appears that, on its first 
publication, that book was not of sufficient authority to pro- 
cure general reception to the whole of its contents ; and as 
the story was more consonant with Gentile than with Jewish 
taste, J a great part of the Jewish church refused to admit 

* See chap. iii. iv. and v. 

f Nero's persecution began A.D. 64. 

% The introduction of Alexandrian Jews into the church warrants the 






88 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE DEATH OF 

it.* Mark, who followed Matthew, passed the story over 
without notice. But Luke having inserted it with some 
variations in his Gospel, which, from its superiority of style 
and greater completeness, grew probably into the most ex- 
tensive use amongst the Gentile churches, the latter came 
gradually to receive the doctrine of the miraculous con- 
ception as implicitly as those of the resurrection and ascen- 
sion. 

Reformed Judaism, or Christianity, as it began to be more 
generally called after the first Jewish church had died away, 
had made much progress amongst the Gentiles in the life- 
time of Paul, [A. D. 37 — 64,] owing to the excellence of the 
Jewish system of monotheism, which carried with it the 
doctrines attached to it by its preachers, of the Messiahship 
and resurrection of Jesus. But as these latter do not rest, 
like the former, on natural reason, there was more difficulty 
at first in procuring them a free reception. The chief argu- 
ment of the Apostles in support of the claims of Jesus, the 
fulfilment of prophecy, might be urged with effect upon the 
Jews, and the Gentiles acquainted with the Jewish scriptures; 
but to the great proportion of the Greeks and Romans, who 
had never studied the law and the prophets, the Messiahship 
and resurrection of Jesus would appear strange and unfounded 
stories, t In the interval, however, between the fall of Jem- 



conjecture that the story of the miraculous birth of Christ originated in the 
desire of some of the converts to render to their master the same honours 
as had been paid to Plato, of whom a similar story had been told. " Speu- 
sippus quoque sororis Platonis films, et Clearehus in laude Platonis, et 
Anaxilides in secundo libro philosophise, Perictionem matrem Platonis 
phantasmate Apollinis oppressam ferunt, et sapientiae principem non aliter 
arbitrantur nisi de partu virginis editum." — Hieron. Adv. Jovin. lib. i. 

* Eusebius on Heresy of Ebionites. 

t Irerusus coat. Har. 1. 4. cap. xxiv. " Quapropter plus laborabat. qui 
in Gentes apostolatum acceperat, quam qui in circumcisione praeconabant 
Filium Dei. Illos enim adjuvabant Scriptures, quas confirmavit Dominus 



JESUS TO THE END OF THE FIRST CENTURY. 89 

salem and the close of the first century, Christianity formed 
gradually an alliance which materially assisted the spread of 
its doctrines amongst the Greeks and Romans. 

This alliance was with the Platonism of the Alexandrian 
school. The name of Plato was held in high veneration by 
the Greeks ; and the Jews of Alexandria, being constantly 
mingled with the Greeks, affected to partake of the fashion- 
able admiration for the Platonic doctrines, which, they pre- 
tended to discover, were derived from Moses. Many of the 
Alexandrian Jews were Essenes, and became adherents of 
John the Baptist, and of Jesus. Hereby a channel was 
opened by which Platonism and Christianity might flow into 
each other. 

The Alexandrian Jews chiefly pursued trade, and conse- 
quently journeyed often to all parts of the Roman empire. 
Ephesus, another important commercial city, was doubtless a 
place of continual resort to them; and from the visit of 
Apollos to the end of the century, [A. D. 56 — 97,] we may 
reasonably infer that the Christian church planted by Paul 
at Ephesus received continually fresh infusions of the notions 
of the Alexandrian Jewish school. * The result was a new 
doctrine concerning the person of Jesus, to which prominence 
was given by the publication of another Gospel, by authority 

et adimplevit, talis veniens qualis, et prsedicabatur : hie vero peregrina 
qusedam eruditio et nova doctrina, Deos gentium non solum non esse 
Deos, sed et idola esse dsemoniorum, esse unum Deum qui est super omnem 
principatum ; et hujus verbum naturaliter quidem invisibilem, palpabilem 
et visibilem in hominibus factum, et usque ad mortem descendisse, mortem 
crucis : et eos qui in eum credunt, incorruptibiles et impassibiles futuros et 
percipere regnum ccelorum. Et hasc Sermone praedicabantur Gentibus 
sine scripturis ; quapropter plus laborabant qui in Gentibus praedicabant. 
Generosior autem rursus fides Gentium ostenditur, Sermonem Dei asse- 
quentium sine instructione literarum." 

* From 1 Tim. i. 3 — 7, it seems not improbable that Paul's cautions to 
the first bishop of Ephesus were directed partly against Platonic innova- 
tors. 



90 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE DEATH OP 

of the church of Ephesus, under the name of John [about 
A.D. 97]. 

Plato had taught* that the Supreme Being, whom he 
called The Good (to ayaOov), made his only begotten offspring, 
the world, f by means of his own divine wisdom or intelli- 
gence, which he called logos or nous, a principle bearing the 
same relation to God as the human understanding! does to 
a man. And he sometimes spoke of this logos in terms 
which might be interpreted to signify something distinct 
from the divine mind itself, § although, perhaps, he only in- 
tended to use a mysterious and sublime manner of personify- 
ing a mere property. Most of his followers preferred the 
more unintelligible interpretation, and carried the personifi- 
cation so far as to make the logos or nous a distinct being, 
proceeding from its origin The Good, as a son from his father, 
which figure had been used by Plato himself for a different 
purpose, viz. to describe the production of the world by God. 
The Jews conversant with Greek literature generally con- 
sidered the term logos as synonymous with the Chaldee mimra, 
the word of Jehovah, which was merely a poetical paraphrase 
for Jehovah himself. But the Platonic Jews adopted the 
heathen notion of personifying the logos, || and even made 
the personification more perfect by representing the logos as 

* Priestley's History of Early Opinions, book i. chap. vi. — Enfield's 
History of Philosophy, book ii. chap. viii. 

f " So that we may justly say, that the world is, through the providence 

of God, a living creature— that it has a soul and reason That this 

living creature might be like the most perfect living creature, he did not 
make two or more of them, but this one only begotten heaven" (/j.oj>oyepr}s 
ovpavos). — Timceus of Plato, p. 477. 

J " They who think rightly are said to think with logos ; and there can 
be no right opinion without knowledge." — Thecetetus of Plato, p. 94. 

§ " As light and vision resemble the sun, but are not the sun, so know- 
ledge and truth resemble the good, but are not the good, the good itself 
being something more venerable." — De Rep. lib. vi. p. 433. 

II See Wisdom of Solomon, vii. 22 — 30. 



JESUS TO THE END OF THE FIRST CENTURY. 91 

a divine emanation, the visible image of the invisible God, 
and the medium by which he made the world, and commu- 
nicated with Abraham, Moses, and the prophets. 

To this the writer of the Gospel of St. John added, that 
the logos which had been from the beginning with God, 
or in the bosom of the Father, had at last become flesh, and 
dwelt amongst men in the visible form of Jesus Christ.* 
The doctrine grew into favour with both parties, the Chris- 



* By comparing the words of Philo, the Jew, with those of St. John, it 
will be seen how natural the transition was. 

Philo. — " To speak plainly, the ideal world is no other than the logos of 
God, who makes the world." — De Mundi Opificio, p. 5. 

" The logos is the image of God, by which all the world was made." 
Aoyos Se eriv eatow Oeov 81 ov cvfiiras 6 kcht/jios ed^niovpyeno. — De Monarchia, 
p. 823. 

"Though no person is worthy to be called the Son of God, endeavour to 
be accomplished, like his first begotten logos, the most ancient angel, 
as being the archangel of many names : for it is called the apxv (begin- 
ning), the name of God, and the logos, and the man according to his 
image, and the seer of Israel. For if we are not worthy to be called the 
sons of God, let us be so of his eternal image, the most holy logos ; for this 
most ancient logos is the image of God." — De Confusione Linguarum, 
p. 341. In another place he describes the logos as a first-begotten son 
(irpwroyovov vlov), superintending nature as an officer under God, and likewise 
as the angel that God told Moses he would send before him. De Agric, 
p. 195. 

"The true God is one, but those who are figuratively so called are 
many ; wherefore the sacred word on this occasion (the appearance to 
Abraham) distinguishes the true God by the article, I am 6 Oeos ; but him 
that is so called figuratively, without the article. De Somniis, p. 599. 

He also represents the world as the younger son of God, but the 
logos as his elder son, remaining with the father, nop' eavrcp Kara/xeveiv 
8t€yo7j0rj. Immutability of God. 

St. John. — In the beginning was the logos, and the logos was with God 
(jov diov), and the logos was God (6eos). The same was in the beginning 
with God (tov deov). All things were made by him (or it) ; and without 
it was not anything made that was made. In it was life, and the life was 
the light of men .... That was the true light which lighteth every man 
that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was 
made by him, and the world knew him not .... and the logos became flesh, 
and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only be- 
gotten of the Father), full of grace and truth, i. 1 — 14. 



92 HISTORICAL SKETCH, FROM THE DEATH OF 

tians and the Platouists. The former saw in it a new mode 
of exalting the Messiah j* and the latter new interest to their 
philosophy, by connecting it so closely with the most active 
sect of the venerable religion of Judaism, the professors of 
which formed already an influential part of their own 
school. t The junction with Platonism gave to Christianity 
a new and imposing title to consideration with the Gentiles. 
The claims of Jesus were no longer those of an obscure 
Jew, interesting chiefly to his own nation, and proveable 
only by reference to Jewish writings. They appeared to 
rest also on the authority of one of the most venerated of 
the Grecian sages, and might be supported by the writings 
of an extensive and fashionable philosophic school. To the 
Jews he had seemed to fulfil the law and the prophets ; and 

* The first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews contains a doctrine 
-so closely resembling that of John's Gospel, — that Jesus was the logos or 
image of God, — that the two writings would seem to proceed from nearly 
the same age. There is no satisfactory evidence of the date or authorship 
of the epistle, which appears to be first quoted by Clement of Rome, A. D. 
96, who has several passages nearly in the words of Heb. i. 3 — 13. The 
application of some of the attributes of the Platonic logos to Christ, be- 
gins to appear as early as in the writings of Paul (Col. i. 12 — 18), for he 
calls him the image of the invisible God, the first-bom of every creature : 
but the incarnation of the logos itself first appears clearly in the Gospel 
of John. The minds of most of the Jews were more or less imbued with 
the notions of the Alexandrian School, especially the Essenes, of whom 
the contemplative portion, or Therapeutae, resided chiefly in Egypt. 

f The spiteful manner of Tacitus in mentioning the Jews, (gens teter- 
rima, despectissima,) and his ready adoption of calumnies upon them, 
(Annals, book ii. chap. 3, 4, 5,) even such an absurd one as the placing of 
an ass in the holy of holies, should rather lead us to think that he had 
some peculiar motive for enmity towards them, than that he fairly repre- 
sents the opinion of the heathens in general towards the Jews. Josephus 
shows (Antiq. xiv. chap, x.) the estimation in which the Jews were held 
by the Romans as well as the Greeks before the last Jewish war. Their 
pertinacious resistance during that war, and the continual trouble which 
they afterwards gave to the Romans, in order to keep them in subjection, may 
perhaps account for the bitterness of Tacitus. The Christians, as a Jewish 

sect, obtained a share of his invectives ; " per flagitia invisos Sontes, 

rt novissima exempla meritos." 






JESUS TO THE END OF THE FIRST CENTURY. 93 

now to the Greeks he appeared to complete the scheme of 
Plato. 

Platonism was that system of heathen philosophy which 
had most points of agreement with the Judaism of the Pha- 
risaic and Essene schools. It taught the doctrines of one 
supreme and invisible Deity, his perfect goodness, and the im- 
mortality of man. But these doctrines being in the form of 
abstract and hardly intelligible speculations, were, with the 
Platonists, confined to the philosophic schools. The follow- 
ers of John the Baptist, and of Jesus, connected them with 
the interests and transactions of life, and with expectations 
of momentous political importance. Platonism still con- 
tinued to offer attractive speculations to the learned and in- 
quisitive ; but it was reserved for its more robust and ener- 
getic ally, the Judaism of Nazareth, to give to its important 
truths an influence in the business of the world, to open 
for them an entrance into the affections, and to obtain for 
them an empire over the will, of the multitudes. 

Thus have we followed the Essene Judaism, from the infu- 
sion into it of Galilean notions, from its connexion with the 
doctrine of the Jewish Messiah, its amplification by the ad- 
herence and protection of the Pharisees, its extension into 
the Gentile world, by the relaxation of the Mosaic code, to its 
junction with the Platonism of the Greeks ; and such was 
Christianity left at the close of the first century, or about 
the date of the termination of the writings of the New Tes- 
tament. By this time, Jesus of Nazareth had advanced from 
the characters of the carpenter's son, the prophet of Galilee, 
the king of Israel, the Judge of mankind, to be the Logos, 
or incarnate representation of the Deity ; and shortly after- 
wards the gradation was completed by identifying him with 
God himself. 

By its doctrines concerning God and a future state; by 



94 HISTORICAL SKETCH, ETC. 

its social institutions for religions worship and the free com- 
munication of charity ; by its connexion with the story of 
Jesus, and its claims to fulfil the prophecies concerning the 
Jewish Messiah ; by its asserted miracles ; and by its an- 
nouncement of the end of the world, and of an approaching 
Kingdom of Heaven; Christianity possessed too powerful 
means of influence over the intellect, the affections, and the 
imagination of men, to be successfully opposed by the ma- 
gistrate. The violent temporary persecutions which their 
intolerance of the heathen deities, and their apparently se- 
ditious doctrine of the subversion of all existing political 
states, brought upon the early Christians, merely fanned in- 
stead of extinguishing the flame of proselytism,* and gave 
to them as martyrs another title to the sympathies of the 
generous and humane part of mankind. Neither polytheism 
nor any of the philosophies prevalent in the Roman empire 
possessed vitality enough to resist the powerful influences 
which thus rolled onward from Palestine; and after three 
centuries of alternate persecution and repose, a politic em- 
peror found it expedient to offer to the reforming sect an al- 
liance with the state. 



* The attempt of Gibbon, in his 16th chapter, to conceal the sufferings 
of the early Christians is as contradictory to history as it is ungenerous. 
The persecution under Marcus Antonius, which included the atrocious 
cruelties at Vienne and Lyons, is thus glossed over : " During the whole 
course of his reign, Marcus despised the Christians as a philosopher, and 
punished them as a sovereign." A parasite of the Emperor could not have 
written in a more courtly manner. But it must be allowed that there 
were between the persecutions long intervals, in which the Christians lived 
and practised their rites with tolerable security. 



95 ) 



CHAPTER III. 

ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF THE GOSPEL OF 
ST. MATTHEW. 

The four Gospels contain many things agreeing with the 
usual order of nature, and necessary to account for the growth 
of Christianity, such as the existence, public preaching, and 
death of Christ ; but they also contain many things unusual 
in the order of nature, and, as the preceding sketch has 
shown, not necessary to account for the growth of Christianity, 
such as Christ's miracles and resurrection. Admitting that a 
miracle may be proved by sufficient testimony, we are forced 
also to admit that testimony, in order to be sufficient in this 
case, must be considerably stronger than that upon which we 
should believe ordinary facts. Paley agrees that Hume states 
the case of miracles fairly, when he says that it is the question 
whether it be more improbable that the miracle should be 
true, or the testimony false. Evid. vol. i. p. 11. 

Paley, however, labours to prove that we ought to admit an 
antecedent probability in favour of a miraculous revelation, 
from our knowledge of the existence, disposition, and con- 
stant agency of the Deity. Others, with Rousseau, have ar- 
gued that it is antecedently improbable that the Deity should 
choose to reveal himself by signs of such doubtful and difficult 
verification as miracles. Most of those who approach the 
evangelical histories are probably influenced by considerations 
of one or the other sort ; and on the antecedent bias it will 
depend whether the degree of credibility which can be esta- 
blished for the evangelists appear sufficient to attest even their 



96 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

miraculous narratives. Hence the different conclusions ar- 
rived at by those who apply to the study of the Christian evi- 
dences. In either case there seems to be a departure from 
the strict inductive method, which should lead us to inquire, 
not what the Deity would or ought to have done, but what he 
actually has done. It seems beyond the power of the human 
intellect to decide, a priori, whether a miraculous revelation, 
or instruction through nature alone, be more suitable to the 
character of God ; but mere common sense, accompanied by 
industry, patience, and candour, is able to form an opinion as 
to the weight due to the historical evidence alleged in favour 
of the supposed miraculous revelation. Critical and historical 
research, therefore, appears to be the only means of arriving 
at a sound conclusion. 

Let us, then, collect the best evidence we can as to the 
evangelists' veracity and knowledge of the things which they 
relate, in order to judge if it be so strong as to warrant a rea- 
sonable man in believing them when they relate miracles ; or, 
in other words, if, considering the circumstances in which they 
were placed, and what we can perceive of their views, motives, 
and characters, it be more improbable that the miracles should 
be true, or their testimony false. 

The first Gospel bears no author's name in itself, but has 
come down to us from the earliest ages of the church under the 
title of " the Gospel according to St. Matthew/' Neither does 
it bear in itself any date. We are obliged, then, to supply these 
omissions by inferences from the contents of the book itself, 
and by external evidence. 

I. The contents of the book show that it was published 
during or immediately after the Jewish war, A. D. 66 to 70 ; 
for the 24th chapter, written in the prophetic style, mentions 
things which agree with real events up to that time, but dis- 
agree with them afterwards. This is shown by the following 






THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW. 97 

examination of the chapter as compared with the histories of 
Josephus and others ; besides which there are some internal 
indications that it was not a prediction really delivered by 
Jesus, but the writer's own description of his times. 

Matt. xxiv. 1. And Jesus went out, and departed from the 
temple ; and the disciples came to show him the buildings of the 
temple. 2. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these 
things ? Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left one stone 
upon another that shall not be throivn down. 

This prediction is not referred to in the speeches of the 
Apostles in the Acts,* nor in any of the epistles, although 
those of Paul dwell frequently upon the state and prospects of 
the Jewish nation. 

3. And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came 
unto him privately, saying, Tell us when shall these things be ? 
and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the 
world ? 

Since the writer says the prediction was delivered privately, 
the general testimony of the church must have been wanting 
to support it. He does not say from which of the disciples 
he himself obtained his information. Mark says, the disciples 
to whom it was delivered were Peter, James, John, and An- 
drew; but we cannot find that any of these mentioned it 
themselves, although epistles are remaining from three of 
them, of which one was written shortly before the events re- 
ferred to.t The coming of Jesus, and the end of the world, 
were generally expected by the Christians about the time 
of the siege of Jerusalem ; but in the lifetime of Jesus the 
first phrase would have little meaning, for Jesus was already 

* Stephen was accused of having said that "Jesus of Nazareth shall de- 
stroy this place, and change the customs which Moses delivered." Acts vi. 
14. But it does not appear that he referred to any prediction of Jesus 
himself. 

f 1 Peter, about A. D. 64. 

H 



98 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

with them ; and the disciples then expected, not the end of 
the world, but the restoration of the throne of Israel.* 

* The disciples probably expected that the redemption of Israel by the 
Messiah would be accompanied by the destruction of those who refused to 
repent, and to receive him (Matt. iii. 7, 12 ; vii. 13). They might partake 
of the common Jewish notion that the Messiah's kingdom was the begin- 
ning of a new world or order of things (Matt. xii. 32) ; perhaps also, that it 
was to be attained through much peril and distress of Israel (Dan. xii. 1). 
But they had not had sufficient ground given them to consider that the 
Messiah's kingdom was to be introduced by a second coming of Jesus, coin- 
cident with the fall of Jerusalem and the end of the world. Their intuitive 
connexion of all these things together in this scene betokens not only a very 
ready apprehension of what Jesus is reported to have already said, but some 
perception of what he was about to say. Matt. xiii. 39, 40, if historical, 
could at most only lead the hearers to expect an end of the world, in which 
the Son of Man would reward the righteous and punish the wicked, without 
connecting this end with a second coming of Jesus, and the fall of Jerusa- 
lem. The reader of Matthew, on coming to this verse, is taken by 
surprise at finding the simultaneousness or connexion of these three 
things treated as a matter of course by the disciples. The subsequent con- 
duct and language of some of them betoken that there still remained among 
them the expectation that the Jesus who was already with them, would, 
during his actual stay on the earth, redeem Israel. 

But the matter becomes clear by referring to the ideas of a later period. 
After the death of Jesus, the Christians believed that he would come again 
from heaven, which second coming might be called emphatically the coming 
of the Son of Man, of the Lord, or of Jesus. James v. 7 ; 1 Peter i. 7, 13 ; 
iv. 13 ; v. 1 ; 2 Peter iii. 12. Josephus shows that the destruction of the city 
was anticipated some time before it occurred, and that prognostics of it were 
found in the prophets. Passages in these apparently connected the punish- 
ment of Jerusalem with the end of all things. (See page 80.) Therefore 
by the time the first gospel was written, the Christians had become familiar 
with the idea of connexion between the coming of the Son of Man, the fall 
of Jerusalem, and the end of the world ; although they could not foresee the 
precise order of date of the three events. The writer therefore puts into 
the mouth of the disciples the question most interesting to the Christians 
in his own time—" When shall these things be, and what shall be the sign 
of thy coming? " &c. 

These observations apply also in great part to Matt. x. 22, 23 ; xvi. 28. 
It seems improbable that the coming of the Son of Man, which appears to 
have been very commonly used by Jesus to signify his actual appearance, 
could have been mentioned at the periods referred to as a familiar idea in 
the sense of a second supernatural coming at a distant period, and apparently 
without exciting any demand for explanation. Matt. xxvi. 64, occurring 
shortly before the execution of Jesus, is possibly in substance a real saying, 






THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW. 99 

4. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that 
no man deceive you. 5. For many shall come in my name, 
saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. 

Jos., War, book ii. ch. 13, " There was also another body 
of wicked men gotten together, who laid waste the happy- 
state of the city no less than did these murderers. These 
were such men as deceived and deluded the people under 
pretence of divine inspiration, but were for procuring inno- 
vations and changes of the government ; and these prevailed 
with the multitude to act like madmen, and went before them 
into the wilderness, as pretending that God would there show 
them the signals of liberty." This was in the procuratorship 
of Felix, A. D. 55. Ibid. " Now when these (the Egyptian 
false prophet and his company) were quieted, it happened, as 
it does in a diseased body, that another part was subject to 
an inflammation; for a company of deceivers and robbers 
got together, and persuaded the Jews to revolt, and exhorted 
them to assert their liberty, inflicting death on those that 
continued in obedience to the Roman government, and say- 
ing, that such as willingly chose slavery ought to be forced 
from such their desired inclinations ; for they parted them- 
selves into different bodies, and lay in wait up and down the 
country, and plundered the houses of the great men, and 
slew the men themselves, and set the villages on fire ; and 
this till all Judea was filled with the effects of their mad- 
ness. And thus the flame was every day more and more 
blown up, till it came to a direct war." 

being the application of Dan. vii. 13, in a literal sense, when it had not been 
accomplished in any other ; which saying may have contributed to the sub- 
sequent expectation of the church, and to its condensation into the phrase, 
the " coming of the Son of Man." This might easily be reflected into the 
account of the previous discourses. A few isolated passages of this kind 
appear therefore rather to partake of the character which internal evidence 
and the context affix to ch. xxiv. 3, than to afford a sufficient basis on which 
to establish the authenticity of the latter. 

H 2 



100 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 






6. And ye shall hear of ivars, and rumours of wars : see 
that ye be not troubled : for all these things must come to pass, 
but the end is not yet. 

Jos., War, ii. ch. 16, " However, Floras contrived another 
way to oblige the Jews to begin the war, and sent to Cestius, 
and accused the Jews falsely of revolting." Then followed 
many massacres and tumults in different parts of Judea, in 
Syria, and at Alexandria; but the people were restrained by 
Agrippa from an open war. Chap. 17, " And thus did 
Agrippa then put a stop to the war which was threatened." 
After this, Cestius marched to Jerusalem, 30th Oct. A. D. 66, 
and was beaten ; which was the beginning of the war : but 
Jerusalem itself was not besieged till three years and a half 
afterwards. 

7. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against 
kingdom : and there shall be famines and pestilences and earth- 
quakes in divers places. 8. All these are the beginning of 
sorrows. 

Jos., War, iv. ch. 8, " In the meantime (about March 
A. D. 68) an account came that there were commotions in 
Galatia, and that Vindex, with the men of power in that 
country, had revolted from Nero. This report excited Ves- 
pasian to go on briskly with the war ; for he foresaw already 
the civil wars which were coming upon them, nay, that the 
very government was in danger ; and he thought, if he could 
first reduce the eastern parts of the empire to peace, he 
should make the fears for Italy the lighter." 

Tacitus, Ann. xvi. cap. 13, !* This year (A. D. 65 or 67), 
so disgraced by crimes, was also marked by the gods with 
tempests and pestilences. Campania was ravaged by a hur- 
ricane, which destroyed villas, woods, and harvests; and 
extended its violence as far as the city, in which the pesti- 
lence was thinning all living creatures, &c." According to 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW. 101 

Eusebius, three cities, Laodicea, Hierapolis, and Colosse, 
suffered much from an earthquake in the reign of Nero; 
and Lardner has collected several accounts of earthquakes in 
the same reign. Jewish Test. chap. iii. 

Jos., War, iv. ch. 9, " Now, as Vespasian was getting 
ready to march to Jerusalem, he was informed that Nero 
was dead [A. D. 68, 10th June]. But how he abused his 
power, how also the war in Galatia was ended; and how 
Galba was made emperor, and returned out of Spain to 
Rome, and how he was slain by treachery, and Otho made 
emperor, with his expedition against the commanders of 
Vitellius, and his destruction thereupon ; and besides what 
troubles there were under Vitellius ; I have omitted to give 
an account of them, because they are well known by all." 

Ch. 10, " Now about this very time (third year of the war) 
it was that heavy calamities came upon Rome on all sides." 

Book v. ch. 1. In describing the three factions which raged 
at Jerusalem, and the burning of the corn laid up for the 
siege, Josephus breaks into this exclamation : " and now, O 
most wretched city, what misery so great as this didst thou 
suffer from the Romans, when they came to purify thee from 
thy intestine hatred ! For thou couldst be no longer a place 
fit for God, nor couldst thou longer continue in being, after 
thou hadst been a sepulchre for the bodies of thine own 
people, and hadst made the holy house itself a burying-place 
in this civil war of thine \" 

Ibid., " And now as the city was engaged in a war on all 
sides, from these treacherous crowds of wicked men, the 
people of the city, between them, were like a great body torn 
in pieces. The aged men and the women were in such dis- 
tress by their internal calamities, that they wished for the 
Bomans, and earnestly hoped for an external war, in order 
to deliver them from their domestic miseries. Nor could 
such as had a mind flee away, for the robbers, although con- 



102 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

tending with one another in other respects ; agreed in killing 
those who were for peace with the Romans, or showed an 
inclination to desert. Nor was any regard paid to those that 
were still alive, by their relations ; nor was any care taken 
of burial for those that were dead : every one despaired of 
himself. But the seditious themselves fought against each 
other, whilst treading upon the dead bodies as they lay 
heaped together : and when they had resolved upon any- 
thing, they executed it without mercy, omitting no method 
of torment or barbarity/-' More minute details of the cruel- 
ties of the seditious, and of the miseries of the famine, are 
given in chap. 10. 

9. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall 
kill you ; and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's 
sake. 

The first persecution of the Christians by the Roman govern- 
ment, that of Nero, began A. D. 64 or 65.* Tacitus calls 
them a people abhorred for their crimes. 

10. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one 
another, and shall hate one another. 11. And many false pro- 
phets shall arise, and shall deceive many. 

Jos., War, vi. ch. 5, " A false prophet was the occasion of 
these people's destruction, who had publicly proclaimed, that 
God commanded them to get up upon the temple, and that 
there they should receive miraculous signs of their deliver- 

* Luke is more particular concerning the date of the persecutions, and 
says it was before the wars, earthquakes, &c, xxi. 12 ; which agrees ex- 
actly with Tacitus and Josephus. The order of events may be recapitulated 
thus : — 

A. D. 64 or 65. Persecution under Nero began. There had been minor 

persecutions previously. 
A. D. 65 or 67. Tempests, pestilences, and famines. 

Earthquakes in the reign of Nero [A. D. 54 — 68], but 
not dated exactly. 
A. D. 68. Civil wars in the empire. 
The Tpo 8e tovtwv of Luke therefore corrects very accurately the totc of 
Matthew. 






THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW. 103 

ance. Now, there was then a great number of false prophets 
suborned by the tyrants to impose upon the people, who 
denounced this to them, that they should wait for deliver- 
ance from God ; and this was in order to keep them from 
deserting. Thus were the miserable people persuaded by 
these deceivers, and such as belied God himself; while they 
did not attend to the signs that were so evident, and did so 
plainly foretel their future desolation." The first incident 
occurred at the end of the siege; but Josephus evidently 
passes on to a reflection on the state of things during and 
previous to it. 

12. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall 
wax cold. 

War, v. ch. 11, " Neither did any city ever suffer such 
miseries, nor did any age ever breed a generation more fruit- 
ful in wickedness than this was, from the beginning of the 
world." 

13. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be 
saved. 14. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached 
in all the world for a witness unto all nations ; and then shall 
the end come. 

The churches planted by Paul up to the year 62 had in- 
creased, and Christianity spread widely into the Eoman 
empire. 

15. When therefore ye shall see the abomination of desola- 
tion, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place 
{whoso readeth, let him understand). 

This seems to apply to the temporary entrance of Cestius's 
army into Jerusalem [30th Oct. A. D. 66] and his attack upon 
the temple. The writer adapts the latter part of Daniel, 
ch. ix., to the events of his time, and imitates towards his 
readers the address of the angel, who told Daniel that he was 
come to give him understanding. The phrase seems merely 



104 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

to imply a covert meaning, which might be understood with 
attention. The slight ambiguity rendered the warning more 
solemn ; and besides, as the Christians at Pella did not wish 
to identify themselves with the revolted Jews, it would have 
been injudicious to say openly that the " abomination of 
desolation" meant the Romans.* 

In the time of Pilate, Judea was tolerably tranquil ; there 
was then no reason to apprehend an approaching ruin of 
Jerusalem. But after the defeat of Cestius, Josephus says 
that ruin was generally apprehended, and that oracles of it 
were found in the prophets, alluding apparently to Daniel. 
War, iv. 6, 3. 

16. Then let them who are in Judea flee into the mountains. 
17. Let him ivho is on the house-top not come down to take any 
thing out of his house. 18. Neither let him who is in the field 
return hack to take his clothes. 

War, ii. 20, " After the defeat of Cestius, many of the 
most eminent of the Jews swam away from the city, as from 
a ship about to sink." Eusebius and Epiphanius say, that 
before the war began (which might mean before the entrance 
of Vespasian's army into Galilee) the Christians left Jeru- 
salem and went to Pella. 

19. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them 
that give suck in those days. 20. But pray ye that your flight 
be not in winter, neither on the Sabbath. 21. For then shall 
be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the 
world until now, no, nor ever shall be. 22. And except those 
days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but 
for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened. 

The term " elect" is common in the epistles ; but in the 

* The courtesy of Josephus towards the Romans doubtless led him to 
interpret the QSeAvy/xa r-qs eprj/xocaews as the pollution of the temple by the 
seditious. War, iv. 6, 3. 









THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW. 105 

time of Jesus, his followers seem to have been usually called 
the disciples, and, afterwards, the brethren.* 

23. Then, if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, 
or there ; believe it not. 24. For there shall arise false Christs, 
and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, 
insomuch, that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very 
elect. 25. Behold, I have told you before. 26. Wherefore, if 
they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert, go not forth; 
behold, he is in the secret chambers, believe it not. 27. For as 
the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the 
west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. 28. For, 
wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered 
together. 

So far the prophecy corresponds minutely with history. 

29. Immediately (evdzwg) after the tribulation of those days 
shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, 
and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the 
heavens shall be shaken. 30. And then shall appear the sign of 
the Son of Man in heaven ; and then shall all the tribes of the 
earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the 
clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31. And he shall 
send his angels with a great sound of the trumpet, and they shall 
gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of 
heaven to the other. 32. Now learn a parable of the fig-tree ; 
when his branch is yet tender, and putt eth forth leaves, ye know 
that summer is nigh. S3. So likewise ye, when ye shall see all 
these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. 34. Verily 
I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these things 
be fulfilled. 

These things did not happen, f The rest of the chapter, 

* Excepting in this chapter of Matthew, and the corresponding one in 
Mark, Cruden quotes only one instance of the use of the term in the Gos- 
pels. Luke xviii. 7. 

t The frequent allusions in the Epistles to the approaching end of all 



106 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

and the following one, go on to describe the coming of the 
Son of Man, but contain nothing corresponding with real 
events. 

Since, therefore, the writer was acquainted with real events 
till nearly the end of the Jewish war, but ignorant of them 
afterwards, it follows that he wrote between the years A. D . 
66 and 70. The Christians who took refuge at Pella pro- 
bably addressed many exhortations to their brethren to 
escape from the city, and to avoid following the impostors ; 
and in the loose state of Christ's history at that time, it was 
easy to amplify some traditionary sayings of his into direc- 
tions for the crisis at hand. The author of Matthew, writing 
about that time, naturally introduced such a prominent topic 
of the day into his work ; and being, as is seen from other 
parts of it, less studious of historical accuracy than of render- 
ing it interesting and impressive, gave to his description the 
favourite and poetical form of prophecy. The greater part is 
well adapted to the period between the defeat of Cestius, 
A. D. 66, and the arrival of the Romans around the city, 
14th April A. D. 70; for until then, escape, although opposed 
by the tyrants, was still possible, and the miseries of the city 
were growing daily more intolerable. The most probable 
date seems to be 68 or 69, because, with the exception of the 
allusion to the destruction of the temple, the writer does not 
show any acquaintance with the events accompanying the 
final capture of the city, which he was most likely to do if 
he knew them, after dwelling so minutely on the previous oc- 
currences ; as is seen in the account of Luke. The allusion 
to the temple was not unlikely to be made about the year 68, 
since Josephus says, that most anticipated the entire destruc- 

things confirm the first impression of the reader, that the -writer intended 
the prediction to be understood in its literal and obvious sense. That it 
refers figuratively to the spread of the Gospel is a later explanation. 






THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW. 107 

tion of the city. Nevertheless, there appears to be no very- 
weighty reason against placing the date as late as A. D. 70, 
cotemporary with or immediately after the capture of the 
city ; for although the exhortations to flight could then be of 
no practical use, the record of them helped to describe, in an 
impressive manner, the feelings of the Christians during the 
terrible crisis through which they had just passed. 

Zacharias, the son of Baruch, was murdered about the year 
68. The arguments given in note *, p. 81, to prove that he 
was the same as the Zacharias, son of Barachias, alluded to 
Matt, xxiii. 35, tend to confirm the date of 68, or later, for 
this Gospel. 

Since these two chapters, xxiii. and xxiv., have always 
formed part of the Gospel of Matthew, the whole compilation 
must be dated about 68. 

II. Let us see what can be collected from external testi- 
mony concerning the date. 

Barnabas, in an epistle written apparently soon after the fall 
of Jerusalem, A. D. 71 or 72, has this passage : ". Let us there- 
fore beware, lest it should happen to us as it is written, There 
are many called, few chosen." These words are in Matt. xx. 
16, and xxii. 14. And there are many other passages in 
Barnabas, agreeing almost literally with some in Matthew, 
although they are not said to be quotations. 

Clement of Borne, A. D. 96, says, " For thus he (Jesus) 
said, Be ye merciful that ye may obtain mercy . . . with what 
measure ye mete, with the same it shall be measured to 
you :" which agrees with Matt. vii. 2. 

A. D. 116. Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, is the first who 
mentions Matthew's work by name. His writings are lost, but 
Eusebius says that they contained the following : — " Matthew 
wrote the divine oracles in the Hebrew tongue, and every one 
interpreted them as he was able." MarOaiog fxtv ow ' Ej3/ocu& 



108 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

SiaXeKTU) tcl \oyta avvey pcvpaTO. 'HpfirjvzvGE 8' avra wg 
rj^vvaro EKaarog. Eusebius in one place calls Papias an " elo- 
quent man, and skilful in the Scriptures ;" in another, " a 
man of no great capacity." 

A. D. 178. Irenseus, bishop of Lyons, makes the first clear 
mention of all the four Gospels, and says of Matthew's, " Mat- 
thew, then among the Jews, wrote a Gospel in their own 
language, while Peter and Paul were preaching the Gospel at 
Rome, and founding (or establishing) a church there." The 
deaths of Peter and Paul are dated variously from A. D. 64 
to 68.* According to Jerome and Bede, they happened in 
the last year of Nero, or A. D. 68. They had been preaching 
at Rome together for several years before. 

A. D. 230. Origen says that, according to the tradition 
received by him, the first gospel was written by Matthew, 
once a publican, afterwards a disciple of Jesus Christ; who 
delivered it to the Jewish believers, composed in the Hebrew 
tongue. 

A. D. 368. Epiphanius. " Matthew wrote in Hebrew;" 
and " Matthew wrote first, and Mark soon (evOvg) after him, 
being a follower of Peter at Rome." Now Mark wrote soon 
after Peter's death ; so that if we take the date of this ac- 
cording to Jerome, Matthew must have written about the 
year 68. 

A. D. 394. Theodore of Mopsuestia. " For a good while 
the Apostles preached chiefly to Jews in Judea. After- 
wards Providence made way for conducting them to remote 
countries. Peter went to Rome [A. D. 63 or 64], the rest 
elsewhere; John in particular took up his abode at Ephesus. 



* Lardner is in favour of the year 65 ; but the arguments for so early a 
date appear to be of little weight. (Hist, of Apostles, ch. xi.) Jerome says, 
•without any appearance of doubt, that Peter was put to death in the last 
year of Nero, i. e. A. D. 68. De V. I. cap. i. 






THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW. 109 



About this time, the other evangelists, Matthew, Mark, 
and Luke, published their gospels, which were soon spread 
all over the world." 

A. D. 392. Jerome. "The first evangelist is Matthew, 
the publican, surnamed Levi, who wrote his Gospel in Judea, 
in the Hebrew language, chiefly for the sake of the Jews that 
believed in Jesus." 

A. D. 398. Chrysostom. "Matthew is said to have writ- 
ten his Gospel at the request of the Jewish believers, who 
desired him to put down in writing what he had taught them 
by word of mouth ; and he is said to have written in He- 
brew;" and afterwards, "In what place each one of the 
evangelists wrote, cannot be said with certainty.* 

These are the earliest testimonies concerning Matthew's 
Gospel ; and they confirm the internal evidence of its having 
been written about A. D. 68, i. e. about 35 years after the 
events which it professes to record. During that interval, 
much of the true history of Christ was doubtless preserved ; 
but it seems also highly probable, that some misrepresenta- 
tions and fictions should have been mingled with it. 

III. In order, then, to receive implicitly Matthew's state- 
ments, we must be satisfied as to his accuracy and veracity . 

The evidence of Matthew the Apostle's being the real au- 
thor is not very strong ; because most of the writers quoted 
may have borrowed from Papias ; but if it were so, we know 
so little of that apostle, f that a work of his cannot be exempt 
from scrutiny. 

* It was only after the time of Chrysostom that some writers began to 
attribute an earlier date to Matthew. (Lardner, Hist, of Apost. ch. v.) 
Lardner concludes that Matthew's Gospel was written not before 63 or 64. 
But he assumes that " the predictions must have been recorded before they 
were accomplished." Sect. 3. 

f In addition to the account in the New Testament, Lardner could find 
only a few uncertain traditions. Hist, of Apost. ch. v. 

Eusebius said (H. E. 3, 24.) that from Palestine Matthew turned e<p' erepovs 



110 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

He (or the person bearing his name) quotes from the Old 
Testament, as prophecies relating to Jesus, texts which, when 
examined, are found to have nothing to do with Jesus. For 
instance, ch. ii. 15, "And he (Jesus) was there (in Egypt), 
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by 
the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. 3 ' 
The passage in Hosea is, " When Israel was a child, then I 
loved him, and called my son out of Egypt," ch. xi. 1. Some 
he quotes incorrectly, as ch. ii. 6, compared with Micah v. 2.* 
One passage which he quotes as a prophecy, f ii. 23, is not 
found in the Old Testament; although there is one in 
Judges, xiii. 5, resembling it in sound only. See also ch. ii. 
17, and iv. 14. 

The misquotation or misapplication of the prophecies 
might possibly be regarded merely as a proof of negligence 
or erroneous judgment, into which the writer of the first 
gospel was led by the fanciful and inaccurate method of in- 
terpretation so prevalent in the Jewish schools; but the 
converse, viz. the perversion of facts, in order to fit them to 
the prophecies, indicates historical dishonesty. 

In Zechariah ix. 9, is this passage : " Rejoice greatly, O 
daughter of Zion ; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem : behold 



to other people. Origen had no knowledge of the people to whom Matthew 
had preached (Euseb. H. E. 3, 1.), nor Jerome (Catal. Vir. 111. 3). 
Heracleon (about 150) quoted by Clement Alex, supposed that Matthew 
died a natural death. Later writers named various countries as the scene 
of his labours ; most of them Ethiopia. 

* Jerome says concerning this quotation, that Matthew agrees neither 
with the Septuagint nor the Hebrew text, either in words or sense. 
" Quanta sit inter Matthaeum et Septuaginta, verborum ordinisque discordia, 
sic magis admiraberis, si Hebraicum videas — sensusque contrarius est, 
Septuaginta sibi hoc in loco et Hebraico concordante." Hieron de opt. gen. 
interp. t. iv. par. 2. 

f "This text (he shall be called a Nazarene) is entirely wanting in all 
our copies, Hebrew and Greek." — Winston's Essay on O. T., p. 104. Lit. 
accomp. p. 4. 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW. Ill 

thy king cometh unto thee ; he is just and having salvation, 
lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an 
ass." 

Matthew relates the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem thus, 
xxi. 1 : " Then sent Jesus two disciples, saying unto them, 
Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye 
shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her : loose them, and 
hring them unto me. And if any man say ought unto you, 
ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them ; and straightway 
he will send them (avrovg). All this was done that it might 
be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye 
the daughter of Zion, Behold thy king cometh unto thee, 
meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. 
And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, 
and brought the ass and the colt, and put on them (e7ravw 
avTwv) their clothes, and set him thereon," literally, " on 
them" (eirtKaOiGav £7rava> aurajv).* 

Mark, Luke, and John, mention only one animal, the colt 
of an ass, although Mark appears to have copied the greater 
part of his account from Matthew.f This does not show 
such a literal fulfilment of the prophecy, but is more pro- 
bable in itself. The testimony, therefore, of the other three 
evangelists, and the probability of the thing itself, lead us to 
conclude, that Matthew has falsified in his account, in order 
to make it appear that the prophecy, according to his version 
of it, was exactly fulfilled. 



* Augustine explained the matter by saying, he rode first one, and then 
the other. Campbell's translation is, "They made him ride." Improved 
Version, " And he sat thereon." Rosenmiiller compares this passage to 
Jud. xii. 7, " Jephtha was buried in the cities of Gilead," i. e. one of them. 

f Matt. Kcu ore rjyyicrau as 'lepoaoXv/jia .... r\ya.yov rrjv ovov k<xi top iruXov, 
nod eireB-qnav eiravu) avrwv ra Ifxaria avrwv, koli eTreKadurav GTraua) avrwv. 

Mark xi. 1, 7. Kcu ore eyyifavaiu eis 'UfjovcraXrjfi . . . km rjyayou rov iraXov 
ntpos tov Irjaovv, Kat €7rej8aAoj' avrtp to ifiaria avrav kcu eKadiaeu ew' «vt<$>. 



112 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

In Psalm lxix. 21, we find, " They gave me also gall for my 
meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." 
Matthew says that, previously to the crucifixion, they gave 
Jesus "vinegar to drink mingled with gall," (o£,og [ieto. x oA ^c 
^fjay^vov) xxvii. 34. But Mark calls the drink "wine 
mingled with myrrh" tGfxvpviaiizvov oivov. John says nothing 
of this first offering of drink, but agrees with Matthew and 
Mark in mentioning another, of the sponge filled with 
vinegar immediately before the death of Jesus. Luke says 
only in a vague manner, " and the soldiers also mocked him, 
coming to him and offering him vinegar," xxiii. 36; which 
may refer to the second offering. Matthew therefore dis- 
agrees with Mark, and is not confirmed by the others, as to 
the precise kind of drink offered before the crucifixion ; but 
he makes his account correspond exactly with the Psalm.* 

Matthew says that Judas received thirty pieces of silver 
for betraying Jesus, and afterwards brought them again to 
the priests, who bought with them the potter's field. " Then 
was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, f 
saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of 
him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel 
did value, and gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord ap- 
pointed me." Mark, Luke, and John, merely state that 
Judas received money, without mentioning thirty pieces ; and 
say nothing about a potter's field. But Luke, in the Acts, 

* This subject is considered more minutely in chap, xii., note on John 
xix. 28. 

f In our copies the passage is in Zechariah xi. 12, 13, but rather dif- 
ferent from Matthew's quotation. The resemblance of the last five chap- 
ters of Zechariah to Jeremiah in style and subject, and the unsuitableness 
of some parts to the time of the former, (see ch. x. 10, 11,) would lead us 
to think that Matthew was here correct as to the name of the book, and 
that those chapters were originally part of Jeremiah. Jerome said he had 
seen the text concerning the potter's field in an apocryphal book of Jere- 
miah. In Matt. xvii. t. iv. p. 134. 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW. 113 

says, Judas himself bought a field. Matthew, then, differs 
materially from the others, the differences being such as 
make his account agree well with what he quotes as a pro- 
phecy. 

Since Matthew appears anxious throughout his work to 
exhibit the fulfilment of prophecy by Jesus, it seems very 
clear that his zeal led him, in these instances, to tamper with 
the facts. Other objects, then, might lead him to do the 
same in other places. Allowance must be made for many 
inaccuracies in every history ; but a few instances only of 
wilful perversion are enough to bring a writer into discredit. 

In the genealogy of Christ, he says that each of the epochs 
from Abraham to David, from David to the captivity, and 
from the captivity to Christ, consisted of fourteen genera- 
tions each. The last series contains only thirteen, unless 
Jeconiah, who ends the second, be counted again. This 
might be an oversight : but in the second, he omits four 
kings or generations — Ahaziah, Joash, Amaziah, and, further 
on, Jehoiakim, which makes his number exact.* It is diffi- 
cult to consider this also as a mere oversight. Yet, since the 
name of Ahaziah or Ochozias is very much like that of his 
great grandson Uzziah or Ozias, the excuse might be ad- 
mitted on behalf of an historian of known scrupulousness. 

Thus much must lead the reader to hesitate in ascribing 
to this gospel the character of a faithful narration of facts ; 
and the impression is confirmed by meeting with numerous 
stories, which, from external and internal evidence, bear the 
strongest marks of fiction. 

Matthew says that " Herod slew all the children that were 
in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years 

* Some of the Fathers explained that these kings were omitted on ac- 
count of their wickedness ; but certainly Manasseh and Amon, who are in- 
serted, were as bad as any of the four. 



114 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

old and under," ii. 16 ; which is not mentioned by the other 
three evangelists, nor by Josephus, although the latter is 
very minute in detailing the barbarities of Herod. The con- 
duct attributed to Herod is in itself absurd; he mates no 
search after the one dangerous child, to whom the visit of 
the wise men must have afforded a good clue, but slays the 
children of a whole town and the adjoining country in a 
mass. It is inconceivable that any fit of anger could lead a 
politic old king, however tyrannical, to indulge in such 
useless and costly cruelty. And how could Josephus, who 
has filled thirty-seven chapters with the history of Herod, 
omit all allusion to such a wholesale murder ? Lardner sup- 
poses that Josephus wilfully suppressed this ; which is rather 
hard upon Josephus, since Mark, Luke, John, and all other 
historians, are as silent as he is. 

The whole account of the birth of Jesus is such, that if 
found by itself, it would be considered as a wild eastern tale, 
or an imitation of some similar fables relating to the births of 
preceding heroes, philosophers, and divinities. 

The conversation and adventures of Jesus with the Enemy 
of mankind could be cited by few persons in modern times 
except as a poetical vision. Yet Matthew introduces them in 
the midst of things intended as facts, and as much in the 
style of facts as any part of his narrative- 

In the account of the crucifixion, he gives these miraculous 
incidents (in addition to the darkness and the rending of the 
veil of the temple, which are found in the others), viz. an 
earthquake, a rending of the rocks, the opening of the graves, 
and the resurrection of many bodies of saints. None of these 
things, which one would think must have attracted some at- 
tention on the part of other Christians besides the individual 
compiler of this gospel, are mentioned by his fellow-evange- 
lists whilst relating the connected circumstances ; nor are they 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW. 115 

alluded to in the Acts and Epistles ; an absence of testimony- 
less remarkable, it is true, than in the former case. Without 
prejudging the question of the possibility of miracle, it can- 
not be denied that facts of this kind do require for their sup- 
port, evidence stronger than the solitary and apparently 
careless assertion of an unknown writer; one at least of whose 
character we have very little means of judging, beyond what 
can be gathered from the very writing which contains them. 

He alone also relates the dream of Pilate's wife, on account 
of which she warns the procurator to have nothing to do with 
Jesus, this being the sixth instance in this gospel of this mode 
of divine communication. The story bears improbability on 
its face. If the supernatural dream were intended to be an 
effective warning, it would most likely have been directed to 
Pilate himself, since it is allowed that he neglected the vision 
of his wife. If, on the other hand, it be considered as not 
really intended to avert the death of Jesus, but merely to 
serve as a testimony to his righteousness, the improbability 
arises, that the divine testimony could be given in the form 
of a feeble and inefficient attempt to save him. 

Some additional light will be thrown on Matthew's veracity 
when we come to examine Mark. 

IV. A great part of this gospel is made up of acts and say- 
ings of Jesus in that short fragmentary form into which it is 
natural to suppose they must have fallen in the lapse of 35 
years ; and in many instances it seems probable that the writer 
gives the version faithfully, or very nearly so, as it was pre- 
sented to him by the most prevalent tradition of his church or 
time, or by some previous document ; because in such cases, 
the anecdote stops short at the saying of Jesus, the perform- 
ance of the miracle, or some other remarkable point, with- 
out relating what followed, or otherwise connecting itself ne- 
cessarily with the thread of the narrative. For instance : 

i 2 






116 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

The calling of the first four disciples (ii. 18 — 22) is a short 
tale complete in itself, ending at the most interesting point, 
viz. that James and John forsook all, and followed Jesus. 
The narrative both before and after is in a much less graphic 
style. This is exactly the form which such a remarkable frag- 
ment of the history of Jesus might have assumed in tradition, 
which drops all excepting a few striking points or nuclei of 
interest. 

Chapters viii. and ix. consist almost entirely of detached 
anecdotes of this kind, merely connected with such phrases 
as "and," "then," "and it came to pass," "and as he de- 
parted," &c, apparently more for the sake of keeping up the 
form of continuous narrative, than from a regard to real histo- 
rical succession. See also ch. xii. xiii. 

The anecdote of the Scribe who wished to follow Jesus, ends 
at the saying " the Son of Man hath not where to lay his 
head." Either an eye-witness or an inventor would probably 
have added whether the Scribe did or did not follow Jesus. 
In like manner we have the remarkable answer of Jesus to 
another disciple, "Let the dead bury their dead," with- 
out being told what was done by the disciple, viii. 18 — 22. 
The multitudes who were faint, ix. 36, are evidently introduced 
for the sake of the saying which 'follows, since nothing more 
is said of them. The anecdote of the dining with publicans 
and sinners ends at the reproof of Jesus, " I came not to call 
the righteous, but sinners to repentance ;" although we cannot 
but suppose that there was more conversation, and that the 
scene must have furnished to an eye-witness further materials 
for description, ix. 10 — 13. 

But whilst many of these fragments have the appearance of 
being delivered to us faithfully, without any material addition 
beyond an insignificant connecting particle or phrase, there 
are, in many other cases, strong indications that the writer 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW. 117 

allowed himself to embellish or piece out the meagre record 
of a scene or discourse from his own imagination. The inte- 
rest which he takes in his narrative urges him frequently be- 
yond the narrow limits of known historical truth. In the 
scene at Gethsemane, he not only relates facts which might 
have reached him, but gives in an equally earnest and pathe- 
tic manner the prayers and movements of Jesus, whilst his 
only companions, Peter, James and John, were asleep, xxvi. 
36 — 45. In mentioning that Herod the tetrarch heard of 
the fame of Jesus (xiv. 1), he puts into his mouth a speech 
very consistent with the ideas of the Christians, but not at 
all congruous to the supposed speaker ; for the hasty conclu- 
sion that Jesus must be " John the Baptist risen from the 
dead, and therefore mighty works do show forth themselves 
in him," and especially the proclamation of such a fear, beto- 
ken a terror-stricken conscience approaching to insanity, for 
which there is not sufficient support in all that remains con- 
cerning Herod Antipas.* Moreover, in the account of John 
the Baptist, the warning given by him to the tetrarch on a 
matter of the most private nature, the motives of Herod, the 
agreement between Herodias and her daughter, were circum- 
stances not likely to be known so accurately by one of the 
lower ranks in Judea, where the people had very little means 
of learning the secrets of courts ; and in fact, the whole ac- 
count differs essentially from that given by Josephus, who 
from his rank and intimate acquaintance with the politics 
and leading men of Judea, must have had incomparably 
better means of knowing the truth, than either a cotempo- 
rary tax-gatherer, or a member of the Christian sect 35 
years later.f 

* Ant. xviii. ch. 2 — 7. He was a prince of a suspicious temper, but ap- 
parently not deficient in understanding and talent ; and, as Josephus says^ 
he put John to death deliberately from political motives. 

f Even if Matthew's story could be traced to Joanna the wife of Chuza, 



118 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

This appearance of embellishment, or continuance of the 
subject beyond the authentic materials handed down, shows 
itself more frequently in the discourses and parables. The 
inspection of the temple by Jesus and his disciples (xxiv.) 
might very well be real ; possibly also the saying of Jesus 
concerning its future destruction, which is certainly much in 
the style of other brief fragmentary sayings apparently genu- 
ine; besides which, the reflection that, owing to the rejection 
of the Messiah, the second temple would share the fate of the 
first, — was not incongruous to the point of the history in ques- 
tion. The amplification of this into an account of the last 
Jewish war has been noticed. The charge to the apostles, x. 5, 
bears strong marks of reality up to ver. 15 or 16 ; but here, 
as if warmed with the subject, the writer makes Jesus dilate 
into a forcible and eloquent oration adapted to the ideas and 
necessities of the writer's own time. The testimony against 
the Gentiles, the salvation of him that endureth to the end, 
and the promise that " they should not have gone over the 
cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come," could hardly 
have been intelligible to the disciples at the period in ques- 
tion.* But it is in the highest degree natural that the writer, 
believing in the prophetic knowledge of Jesus, should inter- 
mix with the relics of his directions, what he considered it 
fitting for him to have said with reference to the crisis at 

this authority could not outweigh Josephus. Yet this channel assists the 
explanation of the manner in which the story might have been com- 
pounded, viz. of the agreed facts of Herod's marriage and John's death, some 
second-hand tales relating to Herod's court, and the additions of the writer 
himself. 

* We must not only attribute prophecy to Jesus himself, but a propheti- 
cal understanding to the disciples. It might be said, that he spoke pro- 
phetically without explanation, leaving it to be interpreted by events about 
35 years afterwards, i. e. when many, perhaps most, of his hearers would 
no longer be alive to receive the interpretation. This cannot be admitted 
when there is another explanation, so ready and simple, of the apparent 
anachronism. ' 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW. 119 

which the church had arrived. It is to be observed that both 
Mark and Luke in their account of the charge, stop short at 
places corresponding to Matthew's verses 14 and 15 ; i. e. 
before any apparent anachronism occurs. 

Among minor instances of the same kind may be placed 
perhaps the following : 

Matt. xi. 12. " And from the days of John the Baptist until 
now, the Kingdom of Heaven suffer eth violence, and the violent 
take it by force." 

The mode of expression implies that the days of John the 
Baptist were at a considerable distance from the time at 
which the thought occurred. It is very applicable to the 
weighty Roman yoke, the forcible subjection to which seemed 
to be the chief obstacle to the development of the kingdom 
announced by John the Baptist ; and to the continual vio- 
lence which Judea suffered both before and during the war ; 
it seems therefore intended to keep up the hopes of the 
Jewish Christians that the Kingdom of Heaven, though so 
long deferred, would still be manifested in the chosen 
land.* 

xviii. 17. " If he shall neglect to hear them, tell it to the 
church; but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto 
thee as an heathen man and a publican" 

In the lifetime of Jesus, there was no church (tiacX-nata) or 
organized assembly of his followers. There were then syna- 
gogues^ and probably theological schools, or houses of the 
Rabbins (beth Midrash). But subsequently, the Christians 
generally adopted the term " the church" to signify their 
own body, the assembly of the elect (skXzktoi), and in this 

* The discourse is not in Mark. Luke, vii. 28, stops exactly before the 
verse in question ; but he inserts it in a detached form in another place, 
xvi. 16. 

t Maimonides mentions several cases in which delinquencies were pro- 
claimed in the Synagogue. See Lightfoot in Matt, xviii. 17. 



120 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

sense exclusively it seems to have been used by the year 
68* 

It is natural that when a writer confines himself to giving 
relics of real discourses, he should only be able to present us 
with small fragments ; but when he allows himself to speak 
for his characters, the style should become more eloquent and 
flowing. This distinction is very observable in Matthew. 
Those parts, forming perhaps the larger proportion, which 
appear from historical considerations to give us very nearly 
real sayings of Jesus, are chiefly in the fragmentary style. 
See the discourse on the mount, evidently a miscellaneous 
collection; the sayings and parables during the journeys about 
Galilee ; and the few sayings attributed to Jesus during his 
trial. But in those parts applicable to the time of the siege, , 
x. 17 — 33, xxiv. and xxv., the style expands, as if the writer 
were giving vent to his own thoughts, or at least modifying 
and amplifying freely his authentic materials. f Although 
this distinction is not invariable, J it must excite attention to 
find it especially well marked in the passages alluded to. 

Y. Thus, there is in this gospel the appearance of a mix- 
ture of reality and fiction, the former constituting probably 
the larger proportion of the whole. As it is the earliest re- 
cord extant, so it seems also to be, with all its imperfections, 
the best source from which we can obtain a general view of 

* 1 Peter v. 13. James v. 14. It occurs frequently in nearly all the 
Epistles, and in the Acts. But nothing shows that such could have been 
assumed to be the current meaning of the term in the time of Jesus. 
Cruden gives only two instances of its use in the Gospels, Matt, xviii. 17. 
xvi. 18. 

See note on the word elect, p. 105. 

f This idea is supported by finding Luke's record of the parable of the ten 
talents very different from Matthew's, xxv. 14 — 30, the latter being evi- 
dently much more suitable to the later period. 

% The reproofs of the Pharisees, ch. xxiii. for instance, are in a very con- 
tinuous form, although presenting for the most part strong appearances of 
genuineness. 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW. 121 

the life of Jesus ; for, notwithstanding some partial disloca- 
tions of the order of events, and the probable mis-arrange- 
ment of many sayings, from the attempt to group similar 
ones together, this gospel gives a more clear and connected 
account of the progress of Jesus from his baptism to his 
death than any other. Taking this gospel by itself, the 
chronology and geography of the story present no very great 
difficulty. The fragments bear a vigour and unity of cha- 
racter, which it would be perhaps impossible to give to a col- 
lection of mere brief fictions ; and considering the proxi- 
mity, in time and place, of its publication to the first circula- 
tion of the fragments and traditions, there is good reason to 
suppose that it preserves many things as they were delivered 
by the original eye-witness himself, and many more proceed- 
ing from him, but with more or less variation. That this 
eye-witness was the Apostle Matthew, the undisputed title of 
the book from early times, and the testimony of Papias, con- 
firmed or repeated by other fathers, afford evidence of con- 
siderable weight. But that this eye-witness was the compiler 
of this whole gospel, would be very difficult to reconcile with 
the impression given by reading it. In addition to what has 
been suggested, the notices of time and place are in general 
far from being so complete as one would expect from an eye- 
witness. There are continual chasms in the itinerary of 
Jesus ; and notwithstanding the apparent endeavour to pre- 
serve the connexion of the story by joining the incidents 
together with such phrases as " At that time" — " And when" 
— ". Then" — " From that time forth," &c, there are so many 
abrupt transitions, that it is difficult to imagine that the 
writer could have been travelling companion to Jesus for any 
length of time, as the disciples are represented to have been. 
For instance, ch. xv. 21, Jesus goes from thence, Gennesaret 
near the sea of Galilee, to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, a 



122 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

distance of nearly 50 miles, and back again ; and nothing is 
told as to the object or incidents of this journey except the 
affair of the Syrophenician woman. In mentioning the many 
journeys of Jesus and his followers about the country, an 
eye-witness could hardly have avoided giving some particu- 
lars about the manner in which they were performed, such as 
the method of journeying, the number of the party, the diffi- 
culties from roads and weather, the houses at which they stayed, 
and the like. Such minutiae, however trifling, are almost 
inevitably interwoven with the narrations of an eye-witness ; 
although they soon disappear from the story, when it passes 
into other hands. In Matthew, they are wanting to such a 
degree that we cannot even guess whether Jesus performed 
his numerous land journeys on foot, by mules, or some other 
mode of conveyance. The difference between the narra- 
tives of a travelling companion and those of a second-hand 
narrator is seen very well by comparing Luke's account of 
Paul's latter journeys* with Matthew's indistinct sketches of 
those of Jesus, viz. " He departed from Galilee and came into 
the coasts of Judea," "when Jesus came into the coasts 
of Cesarea, Philippi," &c. The same sort of historical bre- 
vity is observable in many of the incidents recorded. 
Compare, for instance, the cure of the lunatic after the 
transfiguration with the same story in Mark. Moreover, 
(if the hypothesis of real miracles be rejected,) both the 
discourses and incidents are interwoven more closely with 
fiction than would probably be the case if the writer had 
been an eye-witness ; for such an one, from the vivid impres- 
sion left by real scenes, would be likely to leave, at least, long 
continuous passages clear. Such is the case in the latter 
part of the Acts, where the stream of consecutive facts pre- 

* See Acts xxi. 1 — 6,8, 15 — 16; xxiii. 24, 31, 32; xxvii.; xxviii. 10 — 16,30. 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW. 123 

sent in the writer's mind, leaves him little room to introduce 
things strictly miraculous.* 

There is another argument of much weight towards proving 
that Matthew the Apostle was not the author of this entire 
gospel. Papias says that Matthew wrote his logia in Hebrew, 
which every one interpreted (or illustrated) as he was able. 
The expression logia-f is by no means equivalent to gospel, 
but might mean only detached fragmentary sayings; and 
therefore when the fathers, subsequent to Papias, say that 
Matthew wrote his gospel in Hebrew, they may be only re- 
peating his assertion incorrectly; for it was a very natural 
inadvertence to confound the original logia of which he 
spoke, with the entire gospel which both comprised and su- 
perseded the logia in their own time. But no one has left a 
record of having seen a Hebrew original of our Greek gospel 
according to Matthew, J nor can any trace of a translator 

* In Credner's Einleitung, § 47, there is an additional argument of much 
weight. If the writer had been an apostle, he would have written indepen- 
dently of the church traditions, and if necessary have corrected them ; but 
on the contrary, he seems rather to gather his materials from those tradi- 
tions, as is strongly evidenced by his frequently giving double versions of 
the same incident : e. g. cure of the blind man — the feedings — demand of 
a sign — accusation respecting Beelzebub. 

f \oytov. Schrevelius — Oraculum ; responsum divinum. 

X Jerome indeed said that a copy of the Hebrew gospel of Matthew used 
by the Nazarenes, was kept in the library of Cesarea in his time. Catal. 
vir. ill. c. 3. But in two other places he shows that this Hebrew gospel 
was not considered identical with the commonly received gospel of Mat- 
thew. " The gospel which the Nazarenes and Ebionites use, which we 
lately translated from Hebrew into Greek, and which is called by many 
(plerisque) the authentic one of Matthew." — Comment, in Matt. xii. 13. 
" In the gospel according to the Hebrews, which is written in the Chaldaic 
and Syriac tongue, but in Hebrew letters, which the Nazarenes use to this 
day, according to the apostles, or, as many (plerique) maintain, according 
to Matthew, and which is kept in the library of Cesarea, &c." — Contra 
Pelag. 3, 2. This shows very plainly that Jerome did not find that He- 
brew gospel to agree with the common Greek one so far as to establish their 
identity, for then it would have been superfluous for the Nazarenes and 
others (plerique) to maintain that it was the authentic one. 



124 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

and translation be discovered. On the contrary, a large ma- 
jority of the best commentators since Erasmus, agree that 
the present Greek gospel bears strong indications of being 
itself an original,* and we know that Jews were accustomed 
to write in Greek, when they intended their writing for cir- 
culation.t This then would of itself furnish ground for sup- 
posing that Matthew the apostle, if he wrote anything, 
wrote only certain fragments or logia in Hebrew (i. e. probably 
Syro-Chaldaic), and that some one else after him wrote the 
Greek gospel which has come down to us, incorporating 
those logia, whence it was called the gospel according to 
Matthew, and in the second century came to be considered 
as the work o/that apostle. 

Upon the whole, then, the most that we can conclude 
seems to be, that this gospel was the work of some one who 
became a member of the Jewish church before the war, and 
who collected the relics of the acts and sayings of Jesus re- 
ported by Matthew the apostle, introducing some traditions 
which he found elsewhere, and filling up copiously from his 
own invention. J His aim was, probably, to do honour to 
Jesus and the common cause, to strengthen the church under 
the trying circumstances of the times, and to be the author 
of a work which should be generally acceptable to his bre- 
thren. That such a man should not always adhere to strict 
truth seems quite consistent with human nature, since in the 
subsequent times, and in the Christian Church, we find 
pious men and sincere believers allowing themselves to coun- 
tenance palpable falsehoods. § 

* A minute review of the arguments on this point is in Credner's Einlei- 
tung, § 42-46 on Matthew. 

f The epistle of James written in Greek, and probably at Jerusalem, one 
instance. 

% Further evidence of this will be found in chap. vii. and viii. 

§ Irenaeus, arguing against the heretics, who only allowed thirty-one 






THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW. 125 

The question of the writer's veracity is the most important 
one as regards the miraculous origin of Christianity, but 

years to Christ's life, and the last alone to his ministry, affirmed that 
Christ was fifty years old at least at the time of his death ; for which he 
alleges the unanimous testimony of all the old men who had lived with St. 
John in Asia, some of whom had also heard the same account from the 
other apostles. " Quidam autem eorum non solum Joannem, sed et alios 
apostolos viderunt, et hsec eadem ab ipsis audierunt, et testantur de hujus- 
modi relatione." L. 2, c. 39. This approaches very nearly to apostolic 
testimony; yet it is at variance with many important parts of the New 
Testament history. 

The same Father also asserted, that in the church in his time some had 
been raised from the dead, and lived afterwards several years, " Jam etiam, 
quemadmodum diximus et mortui resurrexerunt, et perseveraverunt nobis- 
cum annis multis." L. 2, c. 22, 4. 

Speaking of the millennium, he says, " The elders who saw John, the dis- 
ciple of the Lord, relate that they had heard from him, how that the Lord 
taught concerning those times, and said, The days will come in which 
there shall grow vineyards having each 10,000 vine stocks, and each stock 
10,000 branches, each branch 10,000 shoots, each shoot 10,000 bunches, 
each bunch 10,000 grapes ; and each grape squeezed shall yield twenty- 
five measures of wine ; and when any of the saints shall go to pluck a 
bunch, another bunch will cry out, I am better ; take me, and bless the 
Lord through me. In like manner a grain of wheat sown, shall bear 
10,000 stalks, each stalk 10,000 grains, and each grain 10,000 pounds of 
the finest flour ; and so all other fruits, seeds and herbs, in the same pro- 
portion, &c. These words Papias, a disciple of St. John, and companion 
of Polycarp, an ancient man, testifies in writing in his fourth book, and 
adds, that they are credible to those who believe." Iren. 1. 2, c. 33. 

Irenaeus thus gives the credit of this story to Papias, who was said by 
Eusebius to be a weak man, and of a very shallow understanding. But 
Papias speaks for himself thus : " As oft as I met with any one who had 
conversed with the ancients, I always inquired very diligently after their 
sayings and doctrines ; what Andrew, Peter, Philip, John and the rest of 
the Lord's apostles used to teach. For I was persuaded I could not profit 
so much by books as by the voice of living witnesses." Euseb. H. E. 1. 3, 
c. 39. 

Justin Martyr, speaking of the seventy elders who were shut up in cells 
without communication with each other, and whose translations of the 
Scriptures were found to agree verbatim from beginning to end, says, 
"that he is not telling a fable or forged tale, but that he himself had seen 
at Alexandria the remains of those very cells in which the translators had 
been shut up." Cohort, ad Grsecos, p. 14. 

Tertullian, writing against theatres, says, " An example happened, as 
the Lord is witness, of a woman who went to the theatre, and came back 



126 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

whilst occupied chiefly with this, we might he led to form an 
undeservedly low estimate of his book. This memorable 
record comes to us as the principal and earliest history extant 
of the founder of the Christian church, and we find in it 
merit not altogether incommensurate with the influence 
which it has exercised. The rude poetry of warm and un- 
restrained imagination prevails throughout; the zealous 
Jewish Christian endeavouring to commemorate his master, 
thinks not of future theologians and critics, but recklessly 
invests Jesus with all the dignity which fulfilled prophecy, 
visions, and convulsions of nature, could suggest to an uncul- 
tivated reader of the Hebrew legends. The position of the 
church and of Judea imparts solemnity to his story even in 
its wildest romance. We seem to distinguish the sword in 
the sky hanging over Jerusalem in its last days, and the por- 
tentous voice of woe which resounded in her streets ; we 
behold the perplexity of the people fearing the things which 
were coming to pass, and share the anxiety of the band of 
elect looking for the long-deferred sign of the Son of Man 
from Heaven. Amidst the tokens of impending ruin to 

with a devil in her ; whereupon, when the unclean spirit was urged and 
threatened for having dared to attack one of the faithful, he replied, I have 
done nothing hut what is very fair, for I found her on my own ground." 
De Spectac. 26. On which Middleton remarks, that although it might be 
true that terrors of conscience threw the woman into some disorder, we 
cannot but suspect that the smart answer of the devil was contrived by 
Tertullian himself, to enforce his doctrine of the sin and danger of fre- 
quenting theatres. 

Epiphanius said, that, "in imitation of the miracle at Cana in Galilee, 
several fountains and rivers in his days were annually turned into wine. 
A fountain of Cibyra, a city of Caria," says he, " and another at Gerasa in 
Arabia, prove the truth of this. I myself have drunk out of the fountain 
of Cibyra, and my brethren out of the other at Gerasa ; and many testify 
the same thing of the river Nile." Adv. Hser. 1. 2, c. 30. 

For more evidence of the credulity and want of veracity of many of the 
Fathers, see Middleton's Inquiry concerning the Miraculous Powers of the 
Early Church. 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW. 127 

Israel, we feel with him the deep interest of every apostolic 
reminiscence which could lead the Christians to see in them- 
selves a New Israel of the Messiah's saints ; and in contrast 
with the cruelties of the military factions, and the seductions 
of the false prophets, we perceive the fascination of every 
fiction which might confirm their belief in their own leader 
Jesus as an invisible protector, the true Messiah and Son of 
God. 



( 128 ) 



CHAPTER IV. 



: 



ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF THE GOSPEL OF 
ST. MARK. 

John, whose surname was Mark, sometimes called simply 
Mark (Col. iv. 10), nephew of Barnabas, was an early con- 
vert who took a zealous part in the missionary proceedings 
of the church, and was frequently the companion of Paul. 
Acts xii. 12, 25; xiii. 5, 13; xv. 37. Col. iv. 10. Philem. 24. 
The writer of the Gospel was, according to the unanimous 
testimony of the church, a follower of Peter, and therefore 
not improbably the person whom Peter calls his son, perhaps 
in a spiritual sense. 1 Peter v. 13. He wrote his Gospel at 
Rome. Afterwards, according to Eusebius, Epiphanius, and 
Jerome, he preached the gospel in Egypt, and was first bishop 
of the church at Alexandria. 

That John Mark, or Mark, nephew of Barnabas, and 
sometimes follower of Paul, is the same as Mark the disciple 
of Peter, does not therefore appear certain, but very pro- 
bable. 

His Gospel appears to be quoted by Clemens Romanus, 
A.D. 96. 

The first who names him is Papias, A.D. 116, who says, 
" And this, the presbyter (John) said : Mark being the inter- 
preter of Peter, wrote exactly whatever he remembered, but 
not in the order in which things were spoken or done by 
Christ. For he was neither a hearer nor follower of the 
Lord ; but, as I said, afterwards followed Peter, who made 
his discourses for the profit of those that heard him, but not 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK. 129 

in the way of a regular history of our Lord's words. Mark, 
however, committed no mistake in writing some things as 
they occurred to his memory. For this one thing he made 
'his care, to omit nothing which he had heard, and to saj' 
nothing false in what he related." 

A.D. 178. Irenseus. "After the death or departure 
(e%oSov) of Peter and Paul, Mark, the disciple and interpreter 
of Peter, delivered to us in writing the things that had been 
preached by Peter." 

A.D. 194. Clement of Alexandria, as cited by Eusebius. 
" Clement informs us that the occasion of writing the Gospel 
according to Mark was this : Peter, having publicly preached 
the word at Rome, and having spoken the Gospel by the 
Spirit, many who were there entreated Mark to write the 
things that had been spoken, he having long accompanied 
Peter, and retaining what he had said : and that when he 
had composed the Gospel, he delivered it to them, who had 
asked it of him : -which when Peter knew, he neither forbade 
it, nor encouraged it." In another place, Eusebius gives the 
following as Clement's account : " Peter's hearers at Rome, 
not content with a single hearing, nor with an unwritten in- 
struction in the divine doctrine, entreated Mark, the fol- 
lower of Peter, that he would leave with them, in writing, a 
memorial of the doctrine which had been delivered to them 
by word of mouth ; nor did they desist until they had pre- 
vailed with him. Thus they were the means of writing the 
Gospel which is called according to St. Mark. It is said, 
that when the Apostle knew it, he was pleased with the zeal 
of the men, and authorized that scripture to be read in the 
churches." 

A.D. 230. Origen. " The second Gospel is that according 
to Mark, who wrote it as Peter dictated it to him." 

A.D. 315. Eusebius. "Peter out of an abundance of 

K 



130 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

modesty, thought not himself worthy to write a Gospel. But 
Mark, who was his friend and disciple, is said to have re- 
corded Peter's relations of the acts of Jesus." 

A.D. 368. Epiphanius. " Matthew wrote first, and Mark 
soon after him, being a companion of Peter at Rome." 

A.D. 392. Jerome. "Mark, disciple and interpreter of 
Peter, at the desire of the brethren at Rome, wrote a short 
Gospel according to what he had heard related by Peter : 
which when Peter knew, he approved of it, and authorized it 
to be read in the churches : as Clement writes in the sixth 
book of his Institutions, and also Papias, bishop of Hierapolis. 
Peter also makes mention of this Mark in his epistle written 
at Rome, which he figuratively calls Babylon. Taking 
the Gospel which himself had composed, he went to Egypt, 
and at Alexandria founded a church of great note. He 
died in the eighth year of Nero,* and was buried at Alex- 
andria." 

A.D. 398. By Chrysostom, Mark is said to have written 
his Gospel in Egypt, at the request of the believers there. 
However, at the end of that passage he says : " In what place 
each of the evangelists wrote, cannot be said with certainty." 

These are the chief early testimonies ; and they are not so 
satisfactory as we could wish as to the important point, 
whether Peter knew of and sanctioned what Mark wrote. It 
appears from the earlier ones, that this Gospel was not pub- 
lished till after Peter's death, which, according to Jerome 
and Bede, was in A.D. 68. 

If it had been perfectly clear that Peter had given his 
sanction to this production of his follower, in so unequivocal 



* There must be some mistake in fixing the 8th year of Nero, or A.D. 
61, for Mark's death, since Jerome himself places Peter's death in the last 
year of Nero, or A.D. 68, after which, according to the chief testimonies, 
Mark preached his gospel. 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK. 131 

a manner that it might be regarded as the Apostle's own 
declaration of his master's history, this Gospel would have a 
very high claim to credibility in its main features ; because 
no one had better means of knowing the truth ; and from 
what is recorded of Peter, the esteem of Jesus for him, the 
respect of the church, and the character of his own epistle, 
his statement must deserve at least a respectful examination. 
But to admit that whatever proceeded from this source must 
necessarily be true, would be an absurd extreme. We could 
say so much as this but of very few persons, even after know- 
ing them most intimately. The amount of our acquaintance 
with Peter, after studying the whole of the New Testament, 
would not relieve us from the necessity of paying some regard 
to internal evidence and collateral support. 

But the decided sanction of Peter is wanting. The early 
church authorities offer no proof of it, and do not seem to 
have relied much upon this point. It is possible that his 
follower Mark may have remembered or registered correctly 
what Peter said, and given it honestly. Therefore this second 
history of Jesus has still a high claim to respectful considera- 
tion. But the necessity of weighing the internal evidence is 
in this case stronger than in the former. 

II. The first thing that attracts notice is the general simi- 
larity of the contents of this Gospel to those of the first. 
This agrees with the external evidence of the date, [soon 
after A. D. 68,] for two histories written near the same time 
would present generally the same facts, being those preserved 
at that time, and also the form in which those facts were 
then usually repeated. Augustine called Mark the epitomizer 
of Matthew; and it is generally agreed that the two could 
not have corresponded to so great an extent, both in the 
narrations, discourses, and in particular expressions, without 
some means of connection, either by copying from each 

k2 



132 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

other, or from some common document, or by recording the 
same oral traditions. 

Nevertheless, a careful reading of Mark soon convinces us 
that he is not merely a copier. There is evidently the infu- 
sion of some historical details gathered from some other 
source than Matthew ; relics apparently of real sayings and 
circumstances, by which he seems to bring us more nearly 
than the first evangelist does, into the presence of Jesus. 
Although probably mixing these relics of reality with some 
spurious matter, he seems to have had access to one of the 
channels of original information not very far from its source. 

This must be judged of by the graphic nature of the 
details, their appropriateness of time and place, the improba- 
bility of invention, and other considerations difficult to 
classify, but which ordinarily influence us in receiving narra- 
tions as true. Thus : — 

I. 34. He represents it as the general case that the 
demons did not speak themselves on being cast out, and 
intimates that it was a fact considered worthy of some notice, 
by adding the current explanation, viz. : that Jesus would not 
suffer them, " because they knew him." The circumstance 
itself was doubtless true, for the course of tradition would 
rather be to enhance the wonder of the occurrence by words 
and acts of the demons themselves, as we find in some of the 
stories. 

IX. 30. In relating one of the journeys through Galilee, 
Mark adds, " he would not that any man should know it." 
Probably true, because Galilee was the tetrarchy of Herod, 
whom, as we learn from Matthew, Jesus was then avoiding. 
But Mark himself appears to be unconscious of this reason, 
and gives one which by no means explains the secrecy, viz. : 
his teaching the doctrine of his sufferings, verse 31. 

IX. 38 — 40. Mark adds the incident of one whom John 



I 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK. 133 

had forbidden to cast out demons in the name of Jesus. 
Jesus tells him not to " forbid him/' and concludes, " for he 
that is not against us is on our part." This was very natural 
language for the head of a band of men bearing a political 
aspect, and under proscription as Jesus was at that time, in 
a country of which the populace were generally favourable to 
his views. 

X. 1. In relating the arrival of Jesus in the coasts of 
Judea by the further side of Jordan, Mark says, " the people 
resort unto him again." The word " again" (7raXtv) is not 
in Matthew, but it is eminently appropriate ; Jesus had been 
in retreat, and could only appear again in public with safety, 
on arriving in another district. 

X. 32. On going up to Jerusalem, Mark adds, " they 
were amazed and afraid." This was very natural. The 
entrance into the metropolis openly in their weak unpro- 
tected state, appeared to them so audacious as to excite 
alarm notwithstanding their trust in Jesus. Mark himself 
appears not to be alive to the political aspect of the proceed- 
ings, but the narration of Peter had probably preserved this 
trace of reality. 

He frequently adds particulars which there could have 
been no motive for inventing ; e. g., that the colt was found 
in a place where two ways met, xi. 4; that Jesus on first 
entering the temple, merely looked about upon all things, 
and returned the next day to expel the money-changers, 
xi. 11 ; the incident of the young man with the linen cloth, 
xiv. 51 ; that Simon the Cvrenian was the father of Alexander 
and Rufus. Minutiae of this kind, natural in themselves, but 
without purport to the story, indicate strongly proximity to 
the narrations of an eye-witness. The cure of a deaf and 
dumb man, vii. 31 — 37; the cure of a blind man at Beth- 
i, viii. 22 — '26 ; the story of the widow's mite, xii. 41 ; 



134 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 



some additional particulars concerning the raising of Jairus 
daughter ; and the cure of the lunatic after the transfigura 
tion ; bear also the appearance of being founded upon real 
incidents. 

This forms nearly the whole of Mark's stock of separate 
information obtained from Peter or others, and is but a small 
part of the whole work. It is sufficient however to show that 
Mark as a narrator had some independent ground, and there- 
fore that in the much larger part, where he repeats Matthew's 
narratives, these portions of Christ's history acquire con- 
siderable additional support. But it will be seen that there 
are some important parts of Matthew which he does not 
repeat. 

III. Although Mark serves as a channel through which 
small additional fragments of the original transactions reach 
us, he himself seems to be in a great measure unconscious of 
the primary nature and meaning of those transactions. The 
distance of time and place caused the narrators to view facts 
which they were relating with substantial correctness, through 
the medium of existing ideas, rather than in the original 
light. This seems to have been the case to some degree with 
the compiler of Matthew; much more so with Mark. He 
sees things as might be expected from a Christian disciple 
writing at a distance from Judea, and at a time when the 
ideas of the Church had made some movement. The semi- 
political bearing of the Messianic scheme is by him lost sight 
of; the kingdom of God he identifies with the spread of the 
Gospel ; Jewish types and prophecies are to him compara- 
tively unimportant ; and the indications of severe Judaism 
which occur in Matthew, are by him softened into a shape 
more fitted for Gentile readers. This more distant point of 
view influences his story so much, that the additional infor- 
mation he gives would be but of little use towards clearing 



us's 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK. 135 

up the history of Jesus, if Matthew and Josephus had not 
supplied us with the key. 

The outset of Jesus's ministry had been described by 
Matthew thus : " From that time Jesus began to preach and 
to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," which 
agrees with the expectation described by Josephus, of the 
renovation of the theocracy. But Mark adds an explanation 
of the phrase very suitable to the ideas of a Gentile church ; 
" Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the king- 
dom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the king- 
dom of God is at hand, repent ye, and believe the Gospel" 
i. 14, 15. Believing the Gospel, according to his notion, 
was the kingdom of God. Christianity had become a system 
of belief. 

The same thing is seen more strikingly in his account of 
the charge to the apostles. Matthew's account, x. 1 — 8, shows 
a very distinct design of the apostleship, viz. : to preach 
through the cities of Israel, that " the kingdom of heaven 
was at hand." The gifts of healing, &c, were merely sub- 
sidiary powers for this main purpose. But Mark, having lost 
sight of the original purport of the apostolic mission, gives this 
laboured and meagre account of it, iii. 14, 15 : " And he 
ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he 
might send them forth to preach, and to have power to heal 
sicknesses, and to cast out devils." The important point, 
what they were to preach, is omitted. Again in chapter 
vi. 7 — 13, he describes the sending forth of the twelve two 
by two ; but the whole charge consists in giving power over 
unclean spirits, and directions for the mode of journey. 
He concludes merely, " and they went out, and preached 
that men should repent. And they cast out many devils, and 
anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them." 
All which by no means comes up to the signification of the 



136 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 



charge in Matthew. The striking Judaism in the account 
his predecessor might have been an additional reason for 
Mark's curtailing and modifying it. Matt. x. 5 — 7 : " Go 
not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the 
Samaritans enter ye not. But go rather to the lost sheep 
of the house of Israel, and as ye go, preach, saying, The 
kingdom of heaven is at hand." This was likely to be soon 
modified in a Gentile church. 

The death of John the Baptist is related by Matthew as 
affording the motive for the retreat of Jesus, xiv. 12 — 13. 
" And (John's disciples) went and told Jesus. When Jesus 
heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place." 
Mark gives the facts, but omits to see the connection, and 
probably unconsciously mars it, by the introduction of 
another verse. " And the apostles gathered themselves 
together to Jesus, and told him all things, both what they 
had done, and what they had taught. And he said unto 
them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest 
awhile." — vi. 30, 31. So that without Matthew, the im- 
portant bearing of John's execution upon the conduct of 
Jesus would have been lost. 

In several other places besides the charge to the apostles, 
Mark modifies the narrative of Matthew into a form better 
adapted for Gentile readers. For instance : — 

Matt. xv. In the story of the Canaanitish woman, Jesus 
says, « I am not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house 
of Israel." Mark leaves this out altogether. " Then she 
fell down before him saying, Lord, help me. But he an- 
swered, and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, 
and to cast it to dogs." Mark softens this for the Gentiles 
in this manner : Let the children first be filled, for it is not 
meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the 
dogs." 



- 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK. 137 

Matt. xxiv. 20, " But pray ye that your flight be not in 
the winter, neither on the Sabbath day." Mark has omitted 
the last clause. 

Matt. xvii. 10, Jesus says that Elias was already come. 
" Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them 
of John the Baptist." Mark omits this explanation, so 
that it must be very doubtful to his readers who the 
Elias spoken of was. The point was chiefly interesting to 
Jews. 

Matt. xix. 28, And Jesus said unto them, " Verily I say 
unto you, that ye who have followed me in the regeneration, 
when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory, 
ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve 
tribes of Israel." Mark leaves this out, and proceeds with 
the rest of the promise, x. 29. 

Most of Matthew's quotations from the prophets are 
omitted. 

Amongst minor indications of distance from the original 
scene are the following. He calls Herod, the king, (vi. 14,) 
instead of the tetrarch, and speaks of the half of his kingdom ; 
although Matthew had given the title correctly. The term 
tetrarch being unusual, and Herod Antipas less known than 
Herod the King, i. e. Herod the Great, it was natural for 
Mark and the Christians at Borne* who did not study closely 
the Jewish history of the previous seventy years, to confound 
them. For Matthew's quotation from Isaiah vi. 9, " lest 
they should be converted, and i" should heal them" Mark, 
less mindful of the expressions of a Jewish prophet, substi- 
tutes his own notion of the benefits of Christ's kingdom ; 



* A confusion of this kind, arising out of the historical fact of the sus- 
picions entertained by Herod Antipas towards Jesus, might have occasioned 
Matthew's story of the attempt to seize the child on the part of Herod the 
king, who died probably two years before Jesus was born. 



138 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

" lest they be converted, and their sins should be forgiven 
them." — iv. 12. His account of the answer that Satan cannot 
cast out Satan, iii. 23, agrees nearly with Matthew's, except 
that he omits, " by whom do your children cast them out V 
the meaning of which might be obscure to others than Jews. 
He describes the washings of " the Pharisees and of all 
the Jews" vii. 3; the fastings, ii. 18; the river Jordan, 
i. 5 ; more in the tone of an indifferent observer, than of a 
native Jew, to whom such things must have been a kind of 
sacred knowledge from his youth. * 

IV. The style of Mark has strong peculiarities, earnest- 
ness, warmth, and almost child-like simplicity. He is con- 
tented with narrating facts, and omits all long discourses ; 
anything controversial or obscure he sedulously shuns. See 
the conversation at the baptism, Matt. iii. 14, 15 j the 
dialogue with Satan, Matt. iv. 3 — 10 ; " he that is not with 
me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me, scat- 
tereth abroad," Matt. xii. 30 ; Matt. xii. 5 — 7 ; all omitted 
by Mark. Matthew's quotations from the prophets were 
also probably omitted because he could not perceive their 
application. He exhibits a great interest in his story, and 
gives all his strength to set it off to the best advantage : but 
this is done more by tautological expressions and mere repe- 
titions than by the addition of fresh ideas to the more concise 
narrations of Matthew. Except in those few cases where he 
seems to bring additional information, Mark appears, in com- 
parison with Matthew, a prolix second-hand narrator, who 
lengthens his story by many swollen expressions, without 



* This imperfectly Judaical tone of Mark might arise also from his con- 
sciousness that he was to be read by Gentiles. If he was the same as John 
Mark, whose mother Mary had a house at Jerusalem, Acts xii. 12, he must 
have been well acquainted with Jewish usages. He might have been a 
proselyte, and the style noticed would be very natural in this case. 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK. 139 

adding anything to the real force and point. For in- 
stance : 

Mark i. 32 — 34, " And at even, when the sun did set* 
they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that 
were possessed with devils, and all the city was gathered 
together at the door. And he healed many that were sick of 
divers diseases, and cast out many devils," &c. 

Mark ii. 18, " And the disciples of John, and of the Phari- 
sees, used to fast, and they come, and say unto him, Why do 
the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but thy 
disciples fast not V &c. 

Mark iv. 30, " And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the 
kingdom of God ? or with what comparison shall we compare 
it ? It is like a grain of mustard-seed, which when it is sown 
in the earth is less than all the seeds that be in the earth. 
But when it is sown it groweth up," &c. 

Mark vi. 49, " But when they saw him walking upon the 
sea, they supposed it had been a spirit, and cried out (for 
they all saw him and were troubled) ; and immediately he 
talked with them, and saith unto them," &c. 

Mark viii. 1, " In those days the multitude being very great, 
and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him, 
and saith unto them, I have compassion on the multitude, 
because they have now been with me three days, and have 
nothing to eat. And if I send them away fasting to their 
own houses, they will faint by the way : for divers of them 
came from afar. 33 

The account of John's death, contained in ten verses in 
Matthew, is given by Mark in thirteen longer ones, without 
any thing strictly new. 

Some of his embellishments might be thought somewhat 

* The parts in Italics are in addition to Matthew. 



140 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

to mar his narrative, iii. 5, " And when he had looked 
round about on them with anger f 13, " And he goeth up 
into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would, and 
they came unto him -" xi. 13, " For the time of figs was not 
yet ;" v. 30, " And Jesus knowing immediately in himself 
that virtue was gone out of him." 

He endeavours to aggrandize Jesus to the utmost that his 
materials will allow him, by repeating again and again 
the amazement of the beholders, ii. 12 ; vi. 2 ; the great 
numbers who were attracted by him, iii. 7, 8 ; vi. 56 ; so 
that there was no room about the door, ii. 2 ; so that they 
could not eat bread, iii. 20 ; vi. 31 ; by the reverent confes- 
sion of the devils, i. 24; iii. 11; by the solemn preliminary 
of looking round about him previous to speaking, iii. 34 ; 
viii. 33 ; x. 27. But he has evidently much less talent and 
imagination than the compiler of the first Gospel, and 
although apparently well-disposed to enhance the marvellous 
complexion of his story, his additions, whether his own or 
selected by him, are of a very poor kind as compared with 
the bold poetical fictions of dreams, angels, and earthquakes 
in Matthew. See his edition of the story of the swine, where 
he has, in addition to Matthew's short story, these enhance- 
ments, that the demoniac had often broken his chains, that 
the unclean spirit gave his name Legion (in Latinized Greek), 
and on obtaining the consent of Jesus that they should not 
be sent out of the country, forthwith multiplied himself into 
a sufficient number of devils to fill a herd of swine in number 
about 2,000* This disposition to seize upon the mere child- 



* By comparing this story with that of Eleazar and the bason in Jose- 
phus, Ant. viii. 2, 5, it would seem that the disturbance of some remote 
object was regarded as a proof of the demon's exit. Hence Matthew says 
the swine were a good way off. The upsetting of a bason of water bears an 
evident, though modest resemblance, to the sudden madness of 2,000 dis- 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK. 141 

ishly marvellous without the poetical, is seen strongly in 
Mark's neglect of the greater part of the most eloquent dis- 
courses and parables in Matthew. By him they are either 
omitted or reduced to tame epitomes; whilst he devotes the 
space saved to the amazement and numbers of the multitudes, 
and other insipid amplifications. 

Notwithstanding Mark's disposition to enhance the mar- 
vellous, in some of the accounts of miracles where he inserts 
additional particulars, these, apparently unintentionally on 
his part, render the miracle more doubtful than as it stands 
in Matthew: as in the account of the barren fig-tree. 
Matthew would make it appear that the tree withered at 
once when Jesus spoke ; but from Mark we learn that it was 
only found withered the next day. So also in the case of the 
lunatic after the transfiguration : Mark's account shows that 
the demon convulsed the child after the words were spoken ; 
a very important point, which does not appear in Matthew. 
And the additional miracle inserted by Mark, the cure of 
the deaf and dumb man, ch. vii., and of the blind man at 
Bethsaida, viii., are very different from the instantaneous 
miracles in Matthew. 

V. But one most striking peculiarity observable on com- 
paring the two Gospels, is the omission by Mark of some 
very important parts of Matthew. This omission must have 
much influence in determining the historical credibility of 
Matthew, and in order to reason upon it, we should first 
endeavour to decide whether Mark had seen or become ac- 
quainted with what Matthew had written. 

It must be allowed that many of the acts and sayings of 
Jesus, being repeated frequently in the churches, must have 

tant swine. The move distant the object which the demon encountered in 
his invisible flight, the more clear and satisfactory must his expulsion 
appear. 



142 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

acquired somewhat of a fixed form. The superstitious scru- 
pulousness with which the Jews were accustomed to preserve 
the sayings of their Rabbins was favourable to the preserva- 
tion of these fragments, although probably the original 
sayings were not preserved with an equal degree of exactness 
as in that case, from the disciples not being provided with 
the means of recording which probably formed part of the 
apparatus of the Jewish schools. Two independent histories, 
however, might be expected to contain many fragments 
closely resembling in form and expression. 

But on the other hand, this method of preservation, espe- 
cially during the lapse of forty years, must have been limited 
and insecure. Variations must have crept, in different 
churches, into the ways of narrating the same incident, and 
the order of the fragments must have been so perpetually 
disturbed, that we should hardly expect to find them cohering 
in the same succession for any considerable portion of the 
history. In fact, we recognize these disturbing influences in 
some parts of the three first Gospels, some of the stories being 
told in very different ways, and the order of events being 
very much dislocated. 

These differences of narration and order existing to such 
a degree between the first three Gospels, (and the case is 
much stronger if we add the fourth,) as to prove that the 
means of preserving by oral tradition during such a length 
of time and in distant places, was very insecure ; we have to 
consider whether that remarkable correspondence which the 
greater part of Mark exhibits with Matthew, can be accounted 
for by that means. The first part of Mark, to ch. vi. 14, is 
in such a different order to Matthew's, although the separate 
stories agree very closely, that it might of itself be supposed 
to be an independent history, probably founded on the same 
detached oral fragments. Yet, on the other hand, the diver- 






THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK. 143 

gencies do not exclude the supposition of Mark's having 
made some use of Matthew even in this part ; for he might 
have preferred to relate this first part of the history in the 
order in which he had been accustomed to hear it in his own 
church before Matthew wrote ; availing himself of Matthew 
only as a ready-made and convenient collection of the frag- 
ments. 

But from vi. 14, corresponding with Matt. xiv. I, the two 
agree continuously ; or with only such variations as do not 
dislocate the order, viz. : a few additions or omissions by 
Mark. The length of this agreeing part is so great, from the 
departure from Galilee to the death of Jesus, that it is diffi- 
cult to imagine how the correspondence could have arisen 
except from copying. Two or three stories cohering together 
might be preserved in different channels of tradition, but 
not a history of ten chapters. The order of the occurrences 
was as liable to be partially disturbed by tradition as those 
during the journeys in Galilee. But we have the occurrences 
during the journey from Galilee, the abode at Jerusalem, 
the trial and crucifixion, all following in the same order in 
each. Whilst therefore the dislocation in the first six chap- 
ters does not disprove Mark's acquaintance with Matthew, 
the continuous and remarkable agreement in the next ten is 
strongly in favour of it. 

The similarity of expressions not only in the discourses, 
but in the narration of events, seems to be more frequent and 
close than can be accounted for on any other hypothesis. 
For instance : — 



Matt. iv. 18, And Jesus walking 
by the sea of Galilee, saw two bre- 
thren, Simon called Peter, and An- 
drew his brother, casting a net 
(a(jL<pifi\7i<TTpov) into the sea; for they 
were fishermen. And he saith unto 



Mark i. 16, Now, as he walked by 
the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and 
Andrew his brother casting a net 
(aptyi&KrioTpov) into the sea ; for 
they were fishermen. And Jesus 
said unto them, Follow me, and I will 



144 



ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 



them, Follow me, and I will make 
you fishers of men. And they 
straightway left their nets (diKTva), 
and followed him. And going out 
from thence, he saw two other bro- 
thers, James the son of Zebedee, and 
John his brother, in a ship with 
Zebedee their father, mending their 
nets : and he called them, and they 
immediately left the ship and their 
father, and followed him. 

Matt. viii. 2, And behold there 
came a leper, and made obeisance to 
him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou 
canst make me clean. And Jesus put 
forth his hand, and touched him, say- 
ing, I will; be thou clean. And 
immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 
And Jesus saith unto him, See thou 
tell no man ; but go thy way ; shew 
thyself to the priest, and offer the gift 
that Moses commanded for a testi- 
mony unto them. 



Matt. ix. 9, And as Jesus passed 
forth from thence, he saw a man 
named Matthew sitting at the receipt 
of custom (to tcAuviov) ; and he saith 
unto him, Follow me. And he arose, 
and followed him. And it came 
to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the 
house, behold, many publicans and 
sinners came and sat down with him 
and his disciples. 

Matt. xiii. 1, The same day went 
Jesus out of the house, and sat by 
the sea side. And great multitudes 
were gathered together unto him, so 



make you to become fishers of men. 
And straightway they forsook their 
nets (StKTwa) and followed him ; and 
when he had gone a little further 
thence, he saw James the son of Ze- 
bedee, and John his brother, who also 
were in the ship mending their nets. 
And straightway he called them : and 
they left their father Zebedee in the 
ship with the hired servants (one 
word, (xurOwTwv) , and went after him. 

Mark i. 40, And there came a leper 
to him, beseeching him, and kneeling 
down to him, saying unto him, If 
thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. 
And Jesus, moved with compassion, 
put forth his hand, and touched him, 
and saith unto him, I will ; be thou 
clean. And as soon as he had spoken, 
immediately the leprosy departed from 
him, and he was cleansed. And he 
straightly charged him, and forth- 
with sent him away ; and saith unto 
him, See thou say nothing to any man, 
but go thy way ; shew thyself to the 
priest, and offer for thy cleansing the 
things which Moses commanded for a 
testimony unto them. 

Mark ii. 14, And as he passed by, 
he saw Levi, the son of Alpheus, sit- 
ting at the customhouse (to reXonnov), 
and said unto him, Follow me. And 
he arose and followed him. And it 
came to pass, that as Jesus sat at 
meat in his house, many publicans 
and sinners sat also together with 
Jesus and his disciples : for there 
were many, and they followed him. 

Mark iv. 1, And, behold, he began 
again to teach them by the sea side ; 
and there was gathered unto him a 
great multitude, so that he entered 



THE GOSPEL OE ST. MAM. 



145 



that he went into a ship and sat ; and 
the whole multitude stood on the 
shore. And he spake many things 
unto them in parables, saying, Behold 
a sower went forth to sow ; and when 
he sowed, some fell by the way side, 
&c. 

Matt. xiv. 22, And straightway 
Jesus constrained his disciples to get 
into a ship, and to go before him unto 
the other side, while he sent the 
multitude away. And when he had 
sent the multitudes away, he. went 
up into a mountain privately to pray. 

Matt. xiii. 33, Another parable 
spake he unto them. (Then follow at 
length the parables of the leaven, the 
treasure hid in a field, the pearls, 
the net cast into the sea, &c, and the 
explanation of the tares to the dis- 
ciples.) 



into- a ship, and sat in the sea ; and 
the whole multitude was by the sea, 
on the land; and he taught them 
many things by parables, and said 
unto them in his doctrine, Hearken; 
behold there went out a sower to sow ; 
and it came to pass as he sowed 
some fell by the way side, &c. 

Mark vi. 45, And straightway he 
constrained his disciples to get into 
the ship, and to go before to the other 
side, over against Bethsaida, while he 
sent away the people. And when he 
had sent them away, he departed in- 
to a mountain to pray. 

Mark iv. 33, And with many such 
parables spake he the word unto them, 
as they were able to hear it. But 
without a parable spake he not unto 
them; and when they were alone, fie 
expounded all things unto his dis- 
ciples. 



Correspondences of this kind abound throughout to such 
an extent, that whoever will take the trouble to collate the 
two carefully, can probably hardly resist the impression that 
Mark formed his own Gospel mainly from Matthew, with 
only such variations as his own peculiar characteristics and 
some additional information led him to introduce.* 

External probability is also in favour of Mark's acquaint- 
ance with Matthew's Gospel. The early churches kept up 
frequent communications with each other. The resort from 



* Usum esse Marcum Matthsei evangelio, apertum facit collatio. Grotius 
ad Marc. I. 1. 

The correspondence of peculiar words and phrases in both Gospels is an 
irresistible evidence of their connection. Matt. xxiv. 22. Owe av eauOrj 
Trcura crap£, literally, " there should not be saved all flesh," is allowed to be 
very remarkable Greek. The same occurs word for word in Mark. For 
more instances of this kind, see Michaelis on the Composition of the first 
three Gospels. 



146 



ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 



Rome and Alexandria to Palestine was frequent, and it can 
not be doubted that the publication of such an interesting 
life of Christ as Matthew's must have excited much atten- 
tion in the little separate world of the Christians. Mark 
writing soon after Matthew, could not but know that such a 
work existed, and even if it were not in current use at Rome 
or at Alexandria, must have been strangely remiss not to 
have read it. The third evangelist does expressly acknow- 
ledge his acquaintance with the previously written lives of 
Christ, and all the circumstances and reasons which led him 
to become acquainted with them existed also in the case of 
Mark.* 

Allowing then that both internal and external evidence 
lead us to the conclusion that Mark was acquainted with 
Matthew's Gospel, Mark becomes a kind of tacit commentator 
on his predecessor; and a more valuable one we could not 
have. We see how the first Gospel was treated by an inti- 
mate friend of Peter. 

He evidently had not so reverent a regard for what Mat- 
thew had written as to prevent him from altering it at his 
own discretion. Variations in the discourses and in the 
minor accompanying incidents would not be sufficient to 
build any important inference upon ; but he dismisses with- 
out notice some of Matthew's most striking facts. 

He omits the miraculous birth and the flight into Egypt ; 
yet begins his work with these words, " The beginning of 



* That it was Mark who copied from Matthew, and not the converse, is 
very amply supported. The Fathers agreed that Mark wrote after Mat- 
thew, and the internal evidence from collation gives a strong impression to 
the same effect. The obscure in Matthew is omitted, explained or softened. 
Both the epitomes and amplifications of Mark have the appearance of being 
based upon the narrative as in Matthew. Some notes on this subject will 
be found in the Appendix. Very few commentators have held that Mat- 
thew copied from Mark. 









THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK. 147 

the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God." Concerning 
the temptation, he says only, " The spirit driveth him into 
the wilderness, and he was there forty days tempted of Satan: 
and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered 
unto him." 

He omits Peter's casting himself into the sea, Matt. xiv. 
28 — 31; Christ's promise of the keys to Peter, xvi. 20; and 
his direction to him to pay the tribute from the fish's mouth, 
xvii. 24 — 27 ; although in the two former cases, at least, he 
appears to copy the context. Chrysostom concluded that 
Peter must have forbidden him to mention these things from 
modesty ; but there appears no backwardness to do honour to 
Peter in this Gospel. See Mark i. 36 ; xiii. 3 ; xxi. 7 ; on 
which occasions Peter is not named by the other evangelists. 

He omits the dream of Pilate's wife, the resurrection of 
the saints, and the earthquake during the crucifixion ; al- 
though in each case he agrees closely with the context. In 
consequence of the last omission, the 39th verse, ch. xv., be- 
comes somewhat illogical, for it thus attributes the cen- 
turion's exclamation, " Truly this man was the son of God," 
to Jesus's uttering a cry and expiring ; which was not a rea- 
son, although the omitted earthquake might be, for this con- 
viction in a Roman soldier. 

Why did Mark choose to suppress these things ? Not be- 
cause he disliked the marvellous, for he has admitted abun- 
dance of other miracles ; nor because he was in haste, for he 
has lengthened many parts of Matthew, and added some 
things of his own ; moreover, one would think that such im- 
portant miracles deserved a preference. It is difficult to 
avoid concluding, that he omitted them because he did not 
believe them, and did not expect to be believed if he related 
them. He had heard Peter, and was writing a book for the 
use of those who had heard him also. The other parts of 

l2 



148 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 



ibly 



Matthew, which he transcribed or epitomized, were probably 
somewhat corroborated by Peter's preaching, and by the tra 
ditions carried to the church at Rome ; but for the passages 
in question, Mark found that the compiler of Palestine 
had not sufficient authority ; that they were not sanc- 
tioned by Peter or by any traditions of repute ; and from 
conscientiousness or prudence, he determined that his work 
should not be encumbered with so much bold and pure orna- 
mental fiction. 

It is impossible to regard Mark's suppression of these pas- 
sages otherwise than as a tacit condemnation of Matthew. 
In later times, when the means of ascertaining the truth of 
each story had diminished, and the whole four Gospels came 
to be believed in a mass, as resting upon the same authority, 
divine inspiration, these same questionable passages have been 
favourite ones with Christians, as proving most strikingly the 
miraculous character of Jesus. The slight put upon them by 
Mark seems therefore to proceed from his greater proximity 
to the time when they were written, which gave him better 
means than others could have of judging of their truth. 
Mark's example, then, warns all readers of Matthew, that the 
latter is not to be implicitly trusted as far as regards historical 
credibility. 

Admitting the possibility that Mark had not seen Matthew, 
(a case shown to be very improbable,) Matthew's credibility is 
not so strongly impugned, but still it is very much weakened 
by the omission of these things in a subsequent history of re- 
pute. For if the stories of the miraculous birth, resurrection 
of the saints, earthquake, &c, had been true, or even com- 
monly believed among the apostles, Peter would surely have 
mentioned them sometimes during his preaching, and they 
were peculiarly of a nature to be caught up and repeated by 
the audience. The omission by Mark leads then to the in- 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK. 149 

ference, that these stories were, in his circle, either unknown 
or disbelieved, and either case is nearly equivalent to their 
being untrue. 

On the other hand, the parts of Matthew which are re- 
peated by Mark, acquire thereby some additional evidence in 
their favour, and these parts are, the career of Jesus from his 
baptism till the disappearance of his body after the crucifixion, 
including many miraculous stories probably proceeding from 
germs of reality. But this agreement is far from making 
up sufficient evidence to establish fully the truth of any 
one particular narration independently of internal evidence, 
much more of a strictly miraculous incident : for Mark was 
not an eye-witness, but was obliged to augment his materials 
derived from Peter, by borrowing from Matthew or elsewhere. 
He was therefore very liable to repeat unintentionally some 
mere fiction. 

VI. Upon the whole, Mark's Gospel taken by itself gives 
a less intelligible view of Jesus and his designs than the first ; 
and owing to his omission of the discourses, and his more 
remote point of view, he would seem to present us with a 
mere wonderful tale of a person pursuing an extraordinary 
course without evident plan or object. But, placed by the 
side of Josephus and Matthew, it not only throws much ad- 
ditional light on the attempt of Jesus to assume the Messiah- 
ship, but marks one grade in the modifications under which 
his followers subsequently viewed him. No new subjects, 
however, are introduced : the distress of Jerusalem, and the 
persecutions of the church, are dwelt upon so prominently 
as to show that it was written at a time when these were 
still the most interesting topics. Inferior to the first Gospel 
in imagination and eloquence, there is yet in Mark so much 
of earnestness and simplicity, as to give a very strong reflec- 
tion of the modes of thought in the christian society of which 



150 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

he was a member. Jesus of Nazareth is to most of them 
personally unknown ; the title, Son of God, which it was the 
duty and pride of the church to apply emphatically to him, 
begins to awaken a degree of mystic reverence ; and the be- 
liever feels bound to relate every act and saying in terms of 
submissive admiration. Yet, although the above title, con- 
tinually repeated among gentiles, must probably acquire 
some different associations to those which strict Jews would 
allow, it does not appear that Mark had taken the pains to 
define clearly his conception of the designation which he 
places so conspicuously in front of his Gospel : certainly there 
are no indications that he or his circle were yet in possession 
of the ideas of the logos and its incarnation, which after- 
wards were made to supply such ample meaning to the 
term* 



* Credner, Einl. § 56, p. 122, comes to rather a different conclusion re- 
specting the authorship of the second Gospel. " The great correspondence 
in expression between this Gospel and those of Matthew and Luke, shows 
incontrovertibly, even without further evidence, its original composition in 
the Greek language. As far as relates, on the other hand, to the time and 
place of composition, Eusebius appears to be our only authority. He him- 
self however rests his statement on the sayings of Clement of Alexandria 
and Papias. The statement of Clement is opposed with precisely equal 
weight to that of Irenaeus, so that there remains to us only the oldest and 
weightiest of all, the testimony of the Presbyter John in Papias. The 
latter tells us certainly, in agreement with the tradition of the church, that 
a follower of Peter, named Mark, had noted down separate evangelic re- 
cords delivered by the Apostle, but the description which is given at the 
same time of these notes, does not correspond with our Gospel of Mark. 
This Gospel therefore in its present form cannot be the work of Mar 7c." 

The supposed disagreement with the description of Papias, is the histo- 
rical order in which the Gospel is drawn up, whereas Papias said that Mark 
wrote " what he remembered, but not in the order (ra^i) in which things 
were spoken or done by Christ ;" also that " Peter made his discourses not 
ill the way of a regular history" (owTof »>) . 

Yet this does not clearly indicate that Papias had in view any other 
composition than our present Gospel of Mark, for he might intend to disap- 
prove merely of its chronological order, and not to deny that it was at- 






THE GOSPEL OE ST. MARK. 151 

tempted to be written in some order. The last sense seems to apply to Peter's 
discourses only. 

But would not Mark himself have written in Latin, since he wrote for 
the church at Rome ? Possibly he had in view the churches of Alexandria 
and the East also. The traditions had acquired a fixed form in the Greek. 
The latter was the apostolic tongue. If Mark had written in Latin, Pa- 
pias might have been expected to notice it, since he tells us the Aoyia of 
Matthew were written in Hebrew. 



( 152 ) 



CHAPTER V. 

ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF THE GOSPEL OF 
ST. LUKE. 

The prefaces to this Gospel and the Acts show that both 
proceed from the same author, and the earliest traditions 
agree that he was Luke, the companion of Paul, mentioned 
Col. iv. 14; 2 Tim. iv. 11; Philem. 24. There is some 
reason for supposing that he was the same as Silas.* 

This Gospel, like the others, is not alluded to in any of 
the speeches in the Acts, nor in the Epistles.f 

A. D. 96. Clement of Home has a passage agreeing ex- 
actly with Luke xvii. 2 ; but nearly the same sentence is in 
Mark. 

* The pronoun we first occurs in the narrative of the Acts, atch. xvi. 10. 
" We endeavoured to go into Macedonia." The only companions of St. 
Paul at this time appear to have been Silas and Timothy. (See xv. 40 ; 
xvi. 3, 4, 6.) In this case either St. Paul, Silas, or Timothy, wrote the 
Acts. 

It was neither Timothy nor Paul himself, ch. xx. 4. " And there ac- 
companied him (Paul) into Asia, Sopater of Berea and Timotheus, &c. 

These going before, tarried for us at Troas." 

Also ch. xx. 13, " And we went before to ship, and sailed into Assos, 
there intending to take in Paul." 

Therefore Silas was the writer. Wherever the pronoun we occurs, 
throughout the Acts, there is no objection to supposing that Silas was of 
the company. The name Silas, or Silvanus, has nearly the same meaning 
as Lucas or Lucanus, the one being derived from Silva, a wood, and the 
other from Lucus, a grove ; each being probably merely a latinized form of 
the author's original Greek or Hebrew name. 

f John the Baptist's preaching is mentioned Acts xiii. 25, and the Lord's 
supper 1 Cor. xi. 23, in words agreeing very nearly with Luke. But 
neither passage is introduced as a quotation ; and it is more likely that 
Luke should have borrowed from Paul, than the converse. 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE. 153 

A. D. 140. Justin Martyr mentions the visit of Gabriel 
to the Virgin Mary, in the words of Luke i. 35 — 38 ; and 
Christ's agony, in the words of Luke xxii. 42 ; both which 
texts have no parallel one in the other Gospels. He does 
not mention Luke by name, but frequently speaks of the 
Gospels or memoirs composed by the Apostles and their com- 
panions, as his authority. 

A. D. 178. Irenseus is the first who names Luke as the 
author of a Gospel. After speaking of Mark, he says, " And 
Luke, the companion of Paul, put down in a book the Gospel 
preached by him." — " But the Gospel according to Luke being 
of a priestly character, begins with Zacharias the priest 
offering incense to God." — " But if any one rejects Luke, as 
if he did not know the truth, he will be convicted of throwing 
away the Gospel, of which he professeth to be a disciple. 
For there are many, and those very necessary, parts of the 
Gospel which we know by his means." 

A. D. 194. Clement of Alexandria (according to Euse- 
bius) " had a tradition that the Gospels containing the 
genealogies were first written." 

A. D. 230. Origen. " The third Gospel is that according 
to Luke, the Gospel commended by Paul, published for the 
sake of the Gentile converts." 

A. D. 392. Jerome. " The third evangelist is Luke, the 
physician, a Syrian of Antioch, who was a disciple of the 
apostle Paul, and published his Gospel in the countries of 
Achaia and Bceotia." 

A. D. 596. Isidore, of Seville. " Matthew wrote his Gos- 
pel first in Judea ; then Mark in Italy ; Luke, the third, in 
Achaia ; John, the last, in Asia." 

II. The most prevalent opinion, then, was, that Luke's 
Gospel was written the third in order of time; which agrees 
well with the internal evidence, for, on comparing the three, 



154 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 



Mat- 






there is much appearance that Luke made use of both Mat- 
thew and Mark. 

In addition to internal evidence and conjecture, which 
apply to the case of Luke as well as that of Mark, he himself 
gives a Preface which assists us in deciding whether he made 
use of his predecessors. " Forasmuch as many have taken in 
hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which 
are most surely believed among us, even as they delivered 
them unto us, which were from the beginning eye-witnesses 
and ministers of the word ; it seemed good to me also, having 
had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to 
write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, that 
thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein 
thou hast been instructed." 

Luke does not in this state precisely the sources of his in- 
formation, for the phrase, " having had perfect knowledge of 
all things from the very first," is a vague one. His words cer- 
tainly do not imply that he borrowed from some of the many 
who went before him ; but neither do they disclaim it so dis- 
tinctly as to set aside the internal evidence of his having 
done so. Matthew and Mark are the only Gospels extant 
which could have been amongst the many alluded to j* and 
it seems very evident, on examination, that Luke drew largely 
from both, and especially from Mark. Compare 

Luke vi. 1—11, with Mark ii. 23— 



Luke iv. 1 — 12, with Matt. iv. 
1—11. 

— iv. 38—44, with Mark i. 29—39. 

— v. 12—15, with Mark i. 40—45, 

and Matt. viii. 1 — 4. 

— v. 18—38, with Mark ii. 3—22, 

and Matt. ix. 2—8. 



in. 6. 

— viii. 26—39, with Mark v. 1—20. 

— ix. 23—36, with Mark viii. 34 ; 

ix. 10. 

— xxii. 7 — 13, with Mark xiv. 12 — 

16. 



* Origen argued that Luke could not intend to include Matthew and 
Mark amongst the many, because they did not " take in hand (eTrex&pwav) 
to write," but wrote. Most Christian writers have been anxious to prove 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE. 155 

When his two predecessors have the same story, Luke 
generally seems to prefer transcribing from Mark, but occa- 
sionally supplies an expression from Matthew : Luke xx. 
8 — 47, Mark xi. 33, xii. 40, compared with Matt. xxi. 27 ; 
xxii. 46. Here, where Mark omits, Luke omits also, but 
verse 18 he seems to have supplied from Matthew. See also 
Luke xx. 45 — 47, agreeing closely with Mark xii. 38 — 40, 
whilst Matthew xxiii. 5 — 14 is much longer ; Luke xviii. 15, 
compared with Mark x. 13, and Matt. xix. 13. 

Luke is, however, by no means so much dependent on his 
two predecessors as Mark is upon Matthew. He has a great 
many stories and parables not found in the other two; it 
therefore seems likely that he took these from some of the 
other writings which he alludes to, now lost, or that he 
selected them from the current traditions. Also he might 
have learned some things himself from the original eye- 
witnesses ; but as he does not say which these are, it is im- 
possible to discover what parts of his Gospel have this supe- 
rior authority. 

III. The kind and degree of connection between the first 
three Gospels are not very easy to explain satisfactorily ; for 
whilst many long passages agree so closely as to imply almost 
literal transcribing, others, partially agreeing, contain varia- 
tions inconsistent with the idea that one evangelist had the 
works of the others before him.* The hypothesis of a com- 

the same point, but apparently without any better argument. (See Lard- 
ner, vol. v. p. 383.) Others have contended that the term does not imply 
disrespect. Its use by Luke, Acts ix. 29; xix. 13, is unfavourable rather 
than otherwise to this assertion. His tone is certainly devoid of that 
respectful submission with which Matthew and Mark have subsequently 
been regarded. 

* Credner says, " Many have adopted the view that the relationship of 
the three evangelists is altogether inexplicable ; nay, many have con- 
sidered this inexplicability as a work of Providence. Others have con- 
tented themselves with pointing out the unsatisfactory nature of the at- 



156 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

mon document, from which they all drew materials, has been 
generally given up, both from the want of evidence of its 
existence, and from its insufficiency to supply the explanation 
wanted.* The hypothesis of their repeating the same oral 
or written fragments could not of itself account for the many 
long and remarkable agreements ; for Luke, even more than 
Mark, has many instances which show how much tradition 
was capable of modifying the narration of the same incident. 
And, on the other hand, it would be unsafe to infer copying 
wherever a remarkable agreement occurs, because a repetition 
of the same fragments might occasion such agreements to a 
great extent. 

Luke doubtless, as well as Mark, had been in the habit of 
hearing the fragments of sayings and stories related so often 
in the Christian churches, and probably of repeating them 
himself, that he could, without referring to any previous 

tempts at explanation hitherto made. De Wette, on the contrary, candidly 
acknowledges in the preface to the first edition of his Einleitung, that he 
has not satisfied himself in the researches on the formation of the three first 
Gospels." — Einleitung, § 73. 

* In order to account for the agreements between the first three Gospels, 
Eichhorn and Bishop Marsh maintained that there must have been an 
original Aramaic document which was the common source of them all. 
But there appears to be no historical evidence of the existence of such a 
document. The translator of Schleiermacher's Critical Essay on Luke 
says, " The German critic's ingenious and specious investigation of this 
supposed document, and the tempting facilities it offered for the solution of 
the problem, seem to have dazzled the judgment of his followers, and to 
have prevented him from scrutinizing the groundwork of his whole fabric 
with his usual vigilance. In the dissertation itself, the probability of such 
a document having ever existed is not thought deserving of any discussion." 
— Translator's Introduction, p. 25. Yet, not to insist upon this point, the 
difficulties of explaining the agreements on Eichhorn 's hypothesis were 
found to be so great, that in a later work he published an improved form of 
it, viz. that four different copies of the supposed Aramaic original must 
have formed the basis of the three Gospels. 

Schleiermacher himself says, " Without assenting to all the arguments 
which Hug opposes to Eichhorn 's hypothesis of an original Gospel, I think 
he has, upon the whole, succeeded in making the thing improbable in the 






THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE. 157 

history, have written a very copious Gospel ; and as he lived 
at the same time as the other two, had been in company with 
the same Apostles as they, and frequented the same churches, 
he would have in many cases the same version of a story. 
And if we allow that one or both of them preceded him by 
several years, the very circumstance of the existence of a 
written Gospel would tend to give a more fixed character to 
such versions. Luke might therefore have much agreeing 
matter influenced by the two former, although not borrowed 
directly by himself. But in some cases, when his memory 
failed, or he found that those two had things with which he 
was imperfectly acquainted, he would naturally abridge, 
paraphrase, or even transcribe at length, from them. 

These combined considerations account very well for the 
relationship of Luke to his two predecessors, although no 
separate one would do so entirely. Thus : 

eyes of all unprejudiced persons." — Introd., p. 2. " For my part it is quite 
enough to prevent me from receiving Eichhorn's theory, that I am to figure 
to myself our evangelists surrounded by five or six open rolls or books, and 
that too in different languages, looking by turns from one into another, and 
writing a compilation from them. I fancy myself in a German study of 
the eighteenth or nineteenth century, rather than in the primitive age of 
Christianity." — Ibid., p. 6. 

De Wette concludes his remarks on the supposed document thus : " These 
and other arguments have lately become so apparent to most persons, that 
one can now only wonder how this hypothesis could once have found ac- 
ceptance with so many." — Lehrbuch, § 85. 

Mill says, " That Luke's Gospel was published after those of Matthew 
and Mark, appears, on the comparison of the three, clearer than light. For 
nothing is plainer than that Luke borrowed the very phrases and expres- 
sions of Matthew and Mark, nay, whole paragraphs word for word." — Mill, 
Proleg., p. 116. 

Wetstein says, " That Luke took many things from Matthew, and more 
from Mark, appears on collating them." — De Luca, ap. T. Gr., torn. i. 
p. 643. 

Michaelis says, " It is wholly impossible that three historians, who have 
no connection, either mediate or immediate, with each other, should harmo- 
nize as Matthew, Mark, and Luke do." — Origin of the first three Gospels, 
ch. i. 



158 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

1. A large portion of his Gospel is in addition to those of 
the other two ; being things which his greater industry or more 
extensive acquaintance in the churches supplied him with. 

2. Part consists of the same incidents, but narrated in a 
very different form, and which Luke probably preferred to 
that adopted by his predecessors. His story of the woman 
with the alabaster box of ointment, vii. 36, is very different 
from that in the other two, although the points of agreement 
show that the same fact forms the foundation of all the three 
stories. His genealogy and history of Christ before his bap- 
tism contradict Matthew. His parable of the talents differs 
widely from that in Matthew. Also that of the wedding- 
supper. The call of Simon and the sons of Zebedee he 
accompanies with the miraculous draught of fishes. The 
denial by Peter is related very differently. This wide differ- 
ence of narration is important, because it shows that the 
Gospels of Matthew and Mark, although doubtless much 
esteemed at that time, were not considered by Luke as in all 
cases the best authorities. 

3. In some cases he seems to give nearly the same oral 
fragments or traditions, although without borrowing from 
the other two; the slight variations being such as might 
arise in different verbal repetitions of the fragment, but 
unnatural to a copier. See the catalogue of the Apostles, 
vi. 14 — 16, in which there is some inversion of the order, 
and some variation in the names ; he adds also a prayer the 
night before. 

The accusation respecting Beelzebub, xi. 14 — 23, agrees 
with Matthew and Mark to such an extent that it might have 
been derived from the same often-repeated tradition; but 
the omission of some striking verses of those two, and the 
difference in the similitude of the strong man, are against 
the idea that Luke was in this case copying. 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE. 159 

The reference to Jonas, xi. 29, resembles Matthew's in 
great part, but Luke has " the people" instead of " the 
Scribes and Pharisees," and inverts the order of the following 
references to " the queen of the South" and " the men of 
Nineveh ;" all which discrepancies are unnatural to one copy- 
ing from Matthew. 

The discourse, xii. 1 — 9, beginning " there is nothing 
covered, &c," agrees closely with part of the charge to the 
Apostles, Matt. x. But the separation from the context, and 
the variation of " five sparrows for two farthings," instead of 
" two sparrows for a farthing" in Matthew, which would be 
frivolous if designed, are against the idea of copying. 

The discourse on sending fire on the earth, xii. 49 — 53, is 
evidently the same as Matt. x. 34 — 37. " I am not come to 
send peace but a sword ;" but this, and the list of the con- 
tending kindred, are so much varied as to show that Luke is 
giving an independent version of the same fragment. 

The woes upon Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, x. 13 
- — 15, agree closely with Matt. xi. 21 — 23 ; but would one 
copying have omitted Matthew's eloquent conclusion " for if 
the mighty works, &c." in order to substitute the much less 
appropriate verse " he that heareth you, &c." ? 

The feeding of the 5000, Luke ix. 10 — 17, much resembles 
the account of both Matthew and Mark ; but not so as to 
leave the impression that he copied directly. He adds that 
the desert place was near Bethsaida ; he says that they sat 
down in fifties, instead of hundreds and fifties, as in Mark ; 
besides minor variations. 

In the transfiguration, Luke says, " after about eight days," 
instead of six days; an unnatural variation if he had the 
otjiers before him. He differs from both, more than Mark 
does from Matthew. The " being heavy with sleep" is addi- 
tional. 



160 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

4. All these last instances of general agreement with par- 
tial variation, might also be explained by supposing that 
Luke had heard or read his predecessor's accounts so as to 
have them partially infixed in his memory, but that he did 
not refer to them when writing. This is perhaps a better ex- 
planation of the following : 

The story of the blind man near Jericho, xviii. 35 — 43, 
agrees very nearly with Mark ; but he places it as Jesus was 
coming to Jericho, instead of going from it; a difference 
which might easily glide into a recollection of Mark's verse 
46, which is more confused than Matthew's 29.* 

The prediction of sufferings, ix. 22 — 27, excepting the 
omission of Peter's rebuke, agrees partly with Matthew, and 
partly with Mark ; with neither so continuously as if he had 
them before him. It is more likely that he had heard both 
their narratives, and mingled them with his own from me- 
mory. 

The account of the last supper, xxii. 14 — 20, contains the 
substance and most of the expressions of Matthew and Mark, 
so as to appear to be borrowed from them by recollection. 
But the transposition of the bread and wine, and Luke's 
verse 19 near the end, being the same as Mark's beginning, 
indicate that he had not those two before him when he 
wrote. 



* This is as palpable an instance of oversight or discrepancy as could 
well be selected, and it has given much trouble to the advocates of divine 
inspiration. Augustine said there must have been two similar miracles. 
" Nihil aliud restat intelligere, nisi bis esse factum hoc miraculum." — 
Quest. Evang., 1. ii. qu. 48, 1. Origen confessed that the attempt to recon- 
cile the inconsistencies of the evangelists made him giddy. Comment, in 
Johan., t. ii. p. 151. Edit. Huet. 

Grotius endeavours to reconcile the evangelists by torturing the word 
eyyifriv. He says, besides its usual sense, to draw near to a place, it 
might mean merely to be not far from it. But that the former is the sense 
of Luke in this place is shown by xix. 1, "and Jesus entered, and passed 
through Jericho." i. e. immediately after the cure. 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE. 161 

5. Some parts of Luke appear to be mere paraphrases or 
abridgments of Matthew and Mark. 

The story of the mother and brethren of Jesus, viii. 19 — 21, 
is a good abbreviation of the accounts in both Matthew and 
Mark, which are harsh and tautological. 

In relating the capture of Jesus, xxii. 47 — 53, Luke begins 
as if following Matthew and Mark, but the rest might be an 
abridgment or free paraphrase. 

6. But in other cases, the agreement is so close and con- 
tinuous as to give the impression that he had his predecessors 
before him, and referred to them whilst writing. See the 
stories of the little children, xviii. 15, 16; the rich young 
man, and promise to the disciples, xviii. 18 — 30 ; the entry 
into Jerusalem, xix. 29 — 38 ; the authority of John, xx. 2 — 8 ; 
the parable of the husbandmen, xx. 9 — 18; preparing the 
passover, xxii. 7—13. 

In the expressions in each story, Luke generally agrees 
much more closely with Mark than with Matthew ; and the 
same is the case with respect to his order. In the first six 
chapters of Mark, where his arrangement contrasts so strangely 
with Matthew's, Luke agrees with the former with respect to 
twenty-eight events or sayings, there being only five disloca- 
tions, besides additions and omissions. From thence to Mark 
x. 13, Luke's order presents no conceivable relation to that of 
the other two ; but subsequently it agrees with them both, still 
however more closely with Mark, to the crucifixion. The 
agreements in order are long enough to form another strong 
argument that Luke was acquainted with one or both of his 
predecessors. 

Since it appears that Luke borrowed from the Gospels of 
Matthew and Mark, we must suppose that he also borrowed 
from some others of the many Gospels written previously to 
his own. We learn from Jerome that a story of the appear- 



162 



ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 



ance of Jesus, apparently the same as that in Luke xxiv. 36— - 
43, was in the Gospel according to the Hebrews. 

If a person were now to sit down to write a Gospel, the 
most full and copious possible, he would blend the stories in 
the four already written, with all that he could collect else- 
where. From having frequently heard those already exist- 
ing, he might write much from memory, but sometimes would 
refer to them in order to extract or abridge. Thus there 
would result a composition agreeing partially with each one 
of the four Gospels, but with no one of them throughout ; 
having some very close agreement as to matter, expression, 
and order, and some striking disagreement: that is, pre- 
senting the same kind of phenomena that Luke does with 
respect to Matthew and Mark, although in his case they are 
more marked, because he had a much larger proportion of 
additional materials, and also because in his time Matthew 
and Mark do not appear to have been regarded with that sub- 
missive deference which is now paid to the four Gospels.* 



* These remarks on the Gospels are the result of the writer's own study 
of them ; hut the suhject is more amply worked out in Credner's Ein- 
leitung, § 74 — 92. His conclusions I gather to be these : Oral traditions 
of the acts and sayings of Jesus formed the only Gospel till after the fall of 
Jerusalem. These traditions were at first in Hebrew, and soon translated 
into Greek. Owing to the reverence of the church for the subject matter, 
and the poverty of the Greek idiom known to the lower Jews, these traditions 
came to have a kind of fixed form. These were repeated as occasion required, 
without regard to chronological order. But gradually as the eye-witnesses 
disappeared one after another, variations crept in as to names of persons, 
places, &c, and the tradition approximated more and more to the character 
of a legend. The Apostle Matthew had compiled the Xoyia in Hebrew at 
an early period. Some Palestinian Jew made these the foundation of a 
Gospel, calling to his aid the writings of Mark in their original form, and 
the existing oral tradition. Some other person made the notices set down by 
Mark, Peter's companion, the groundwork of a second Gospel, and this 
recomposition was the occasion of the early disuse and disappearance of the 
original notices written by Mark himself. Luke made use of the Aoyta of 
Matthew and the original notices of Mark , and possibly also of our two 
canonical Gospels ; also of the existing oral traditions. 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE. 163 

IY. Some have been of opinion that Matthew and Luke 
wrote first, and that it was Mark who copied from them both.* 
The external evidence of Luke's priority is not sufficiently- 
decided to settle the point ; and the internal evidence consists 
chiefly in the impression left by collating the three. Firstly, 
The additions in Mark's peculiar style of futile amplification 
and tautology have had apparently some influence on Luke's 
narratives, where traces of them are found ; but he himself 
would not probably have originated them, being in general 
a writer of force and good taste. For instance : Luke iv. 
38, 40 ; v. 17, 29, 30, 35. Secondly, Luke, in other places, 
expresses Mark's additions in a simplified or more forcible 
manner, which has the appearance of an ulterior edition : iv. 
15, 31, 33, 37, 39; v. 26; vi. 6—11. Thirdly, Although he 
sometimes retrenches what is superfluous, (Markii. 19,) or of 
strange sound in Mark, (ii. 13 ; iii. 5,) he has frequently ad- 
ditions of his own which further enhance the story. Luke 
iv. 40, 41 ; v. 28 ; xxii. 50. Fourthly, Luke has nearly all that 
Mark has in addition to Matthew, and much more besides. 

Now if Mark had been following Luke, it is difficult to ex- 
plain why he should have preferred him to Matthew with re- 
spect to the narrative of particular stories, and yet omit by far 
the greater part of the stories which Luke has in addition. 
The parts of Matthew omitted by Mark are chiefly the long 
discourses, (and these are generally epitomized,) or some of 
the more obviously legendary parts. But the parts of Luke 
not found in Mark consist in great part of narratives as pro- 
bable and parables as interesting as any in the Gospels. 

V. From as large a collection of materials as he could obtain, 



* For the order Matthew, Mark, Luke — Grotius, Mill, Wetstein, Hug, 
Semler, Townson, Seiler. 

Matthew, Luke, Mark — De Wette, Griesbach, Theile, Fritsche, Sief- 
fert. 

M 2 



164 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

it appears that Luke intended to write in order a history of 
Jesus from the first, but that he soon found the task too diffi- 
cult with respect to the order ; for, after the first few chapters, 
his narrative becomes so jumbled and confused, that the 
reader can form no clear idea of the course of events. It has 
the appearance of a mass of anecdotes and sayings, put down 
as they came to the author's notice, with very little regard to 
time or place, instead of a regular narrative, like Matthew's. 
Nearly the whole of Matthew and Mark may be traced in 
different parts of Luke, but much cut up and displaced. It 
seems probable that he endeavoured to accommodate as large 
a portion as he could of those two to his other materials ; but 
finding that some sayings and facts were thus left out, in his 
anxiety to make his Gospel complete, he inserted the fragments 
where he could. (See Luke xvi. 16 — 18 ; xvii. 1 — 10 ; xi. 34 
— 36; xiv. 34, 35.) That his order, rather than Matthew's, 
is generally erroneous, is shown by the inappropriateness of 
the context, and his want of clearness as to time and place ; 
for instance : — 

Luke xii. 54. The reference to the sign of the times is here 
made abruptly, and to the people, who consequently seem to be 
called hypocrites without occasion. But in Matthew xvi. 2, 
it is in answer to the Pharisees who had been asking a sign 
from heaven. 

Luke xxii. 30. The promise of twelve thrones is put in a 
speech rebuking the disciples' desire of greatness, at the last 
supper. But in Matthew xix. 28, it is in answer to Peter's in- 
quiry, " what shall we have ? " on the approach to Jerusalem. 

Luke xi. 37. The woes against the Pharisees are here re- 
presented as spoken by Jesus at the house of a Pharisee who 
had invited him to dinner. But in Matthew xxiii. they are 
part of a discourse to the people. 

Luke ix. 51. "He steadfastly set his face to go to Je- 






THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE. 165 

rusalem." x. 38. " It came to pass as they went, that he 
entered into a certain village : and a certain woman named 
Martha received him into her house." This must have been 
at Bethany, near Jerusalem, since Martha's house was there. 
Yet Luke seems afterwards to have forgotten or to be igno- 
rant that he had brought Jesus so near to Jerusalem, for at 
ch. xiii. 31, he represents him as still in Herod's jurisdiction, 
i. e. in Galilee : and at ch. xvii. 11, he says, " And it came 
to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the 
midst of Samaria and Galilee" This shows not only the in- 
correctness of Luke's order of events, but that he attended very 
little to the locality of the scenes which he was describing. 

The attempt to preserve the order of the narrative appears 
to be continued to the end of ch. x ; for, so far, one incident 
is generally connected with the preceding by some remark 
indicating the interval of time : vi. 1, " and it came to pass 
on the second sabbath after the first ; M 13, " and when it was 
day;" vii. 1, 11; viii. 1; ix. 1, 28, 37, 57; x. 1, 21, 38. 
But from the beginning of ch. xi. the notices of this kind are 
less clear and frequent : the reader has no means of judging 
when and where the events happen, further than that they 
are in a certain place, in a certain village, in the house of a 
certain Pharisee, &c. On arriving at that part of his work, 
Luke seems to have grown tired, or to have discovered the 
impossibility of the task he had undertaken to set forth his 
materials in order, and to have been satisfied to dispose of 
the rest in the form of miscellaneous memoirs, until he comes 
to the arrival at Jericho, ch. ix. 

In some places acts and sayings of Jesus are thrown in 
with no kind of connexion with the context, or they are ap- 
pended to some discourse with which the occurrence of some 
one similar word or idea forms a kind of associating link ; 
which might be the only " order" in some cases to which 



166 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 



Luke could attain. See for instance, Luke vii. 36. The 
story of eating with the Pharisee, and of the visit of the sin 
ful woman, appear to be placed here, because ver. 34 contains 
the saying, "he came eating and drinking with publicans and 
sinners." xi. 34, " The light of the body is the eye, &c," has 
no connexion here, except that the preceding verse has the 
allusion to the candle under a bushel, xi. 37, Jesus is in- 
vited to dine with a Pharisee : thence Luke passes on by as- 
sociation to the woes upon the Pharisees, ver. 42 ; thence to 
the woes for the slaughter of the prophets, ver. 47 ; thence 
to the laying wait of the Scribes and Pharisees to catch some- 
thing out of his mouth, ver. 53, 54 — placed by Matthew 
much better after the arrival at Jerusalem, xii. 9, "He 
that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels 
of God :" to this he adds the kindred saying, " whosoever 
shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven 
him," a juxtaposition which occasions an apparent contradic- 
tion; whereas Matthew had placed the latter saying very 
well after the accusation concerning Beelzebub. Again, as 
this last saying contained an allusion to the Holy Ghost, 
Luke adds immediately, ver. 11, the advice not to premeditate 
discourses, " for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same 
hour what ye shall say ; " which Matthew again had placed 
much more suitably in the charge to the Apostles, Matt. x. 
19. xiii. 33, " It cannot be that a prophet perish out of 
Jerusalem," is placed by Luke very suitably on the determi- 
nation to proceed thither ; but it recalls to him the woes for 
killing the prophets, and the end of that discourse, viz. the 
lamentation over Jerusalem, which he therefore adds here, 
much less appropriately than where Matthew places it. xvi. 
13, "No servant can serve two masters ;" introduced appa- 
rently for no other reason than that Mammon had been men- 
tioned previously. 



•he 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE. 167 

The very abruptness with which the sayings are frequently 
given by Luke, and the absence of introductory narrative, 
such as Matthew usually gives, together with the almost 
unintelligible form and connexion in which the sayings are 
sometimes presented, xii. 49, xvi. 9 — 12, xxii. 38 ; are in- 
dications of Luke's fidelity in giving his materials as he found 
them existing. Probably in some instances, he himself 
knew not what meaning ought to be attached to what he 
was reporting. The original occasion being lost sight of, and 
some words changed or lost during the progress of tradition, 
the church repeated with reverence a distorted and mysterious 
fragment, of which the enigmatical character might appear 
the better to entitle it to preservation. 

Another indication of Luke's fidelity is, that in recording 
the sayings of Jesus or the traditions of such sayings, he 
confines himself to fragments and parables, without expand- 
ing into long discourses suitable to his own position and time, 
such as we find in Matthew and John. It is true that there 
are in Luke, portions of the discourses relative to the per- 
secutions of the church and the fall of Jerusalem, but it ap- 
pears most probable that he borrowed, either by recollection 
or transcribing, from Matthew or Mark. A companion of 
Paul, if more a controversialist than a compiler, might have 
put into the mouth of Jesus very copious and decided dis- 
courses respecting the abrogation of the Jewish law, and the 
union of Jews and Gentiles by faith alone in the Messiah. 
But on these subjects Luke has very little in addition to 
what we find in the others. The destruction of Jerusalem 
is introduced by Luke with these additional particulars; 
— " they shall he led away captive into all nations : and 
Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the 
times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." This implies that Je- 
rusalem had already been trodden down for some time when 



168 ON' THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

Luke wrote. Matthew, we have seen, does not carry on his 
description to what took place after the siege, but prophesies 
that " immediately after those days shall the sun be darkened, 
and the sign of the Son of Man appear in heaven," &c. Luke 
repeats the substance of this popular prophecy, to which 
Matthew had probably contributed to give a fixed form, but 
as if he had seen that the sign did not come immediately after 
the siege, Jie avoids the word Evdewg, " immediately," and 
retains only the second term of the prophecy's fulfilment : 
" this generation shall not pass away till all be fulfilled." 
This confirms strongly the opinion that Luke wrote some 
years at least later than Matthew. 

VI. In his preface, Luke seems to betray some conscious- 
ness of superiority over those who had "taken in hand" to 
write before him. He comes before the noble Theophilus 
with the same dignified freedom as his friend Paul before 
Festus and Agrippa ; and his work may be thought to justify 
some degree of self-complacency. It is allowed by the 
learned to be written in better Greek than any of the other 
Gospels ; the style is more simple and clear, and his energetic 
conciseness and ease of expression contrast especially with 
the laboured and childish style of Mark. If the large 
amount of his materials indicates industry, the character of 
them betokens also no low degree of literary taste. The fic- 
tions which he adopts have generally more of poetical inte- 
rest, and less of mere rude marvellousness, than those of 
Matthew. The visit of Gabriel to Zacharias, and afterwards 
to Mary, the scenes at the temple, the appearance of the angels 
to the shepherds, of Jesus to the two disciples at Emmaus, 
seem to proceed from a more refined imagination, as well as 
a more practised pen, than the tales of Joseph and the 
angel, Herod and the Magi. The parables also which he 
adds, the lost sheep, the prodigal son, the good Samaritan, 









THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE. 169 

Lazarus and Dives, &c, are equal in point and interest to 
any in the Gospels. No collection perhaps exists which can 
give so high an idea of the power which must have belonged 
to one excelling in this favourite method of Eastern teaching. 

The tone of the morality in Luke, however, has not perhaps 
the same comparative superiority. In him, more than in 
the others, appear the overstrained devotion, the asceticism, 
and the incipient monachism of the Therapeutse. Poverty 
and distress are represented as giving a claim to compensation 
in heaven, in such terms that the merit even of voluntary 
privation and penance might very naturally be inferred from 
them. vi. 20 — 26 : xvi. 19 — 31. The corresponding beati- 
tudes in Matthew do not admit of this turn. The high no- 
tion which Luke entertained of the merit and efficacy of 
prayer, reminds one more of an Egyptian or Syrian anchorite, 
than of the liberal and intellectual devotion of Socrates and 
Plato. Retirement into the wilderness to pray; prayer to 
God for a whole night ; — are introduced in all convenient 
intervals of narration, as if with an anxiety to show that this 
was the favourite and habitual exercise of Jesus, v. 16 ; vi. 12 ; 
ix. 18 ; xi. 1 ; and in two instances the doctrine of the efficacy 
of prayer is actually carried to the extent, that importunity, 
if persevering enough, will at last undoubtedly move heaven, 
xi. 8; xviii. 5. 

Since each evangelist imparts somewhat of his own prin- 
ciples or feelings to his chief personage, Jesus appears in 
this Gospel to partake not a little of the character of a leader, 
seeking to acquire the reverence of his followers by an osten- 
tatious disparagement of worldly enjoyments and the practice 
of unwonted sanctity. The piety of the Essenes generally 
tended to this extreme ; but nowhere so much as in Luke 
does it appear exaggerated to a form at variance with the 
ordinary feelings and necessities of mankind. 



170 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

The doctrine of forgiveness upon repentance is urged by 
Luke in such a manner as to countenance rather than guard 
against the dangerous exaggeration that the repentant sinner 
is in a more desirable condition than the just man who needs 
no repentance. The parable of the lost sheep teaches this in 
express terms, xv. 7. And in the pleasing parable which 
follows, the encouragement given to the virtuous elder brother 
seems in reality too limited in comparison with the festive 
welcome of the prodigal, whose repentance arose merely from 
distress, and as yet had not proved its sincerity by reforma- 
tion. The grovelling humility of the publi can, unaccompanied, 
as far as the story shows, by any change of conduct, leaves 
us in doubt whether to prefer it to the conceited righteousness 
of the Pharisee. This apparent estimation of repentance 
without regard to its fruits, is another indication of Luke's 
sympathy with those Eastern sects who considered abasement 
of the human being, both in body and mind, the best prepa- 
rative for the favour of heaven. 

The apparent object of Jesus is in this Gospel also, the pre- 
paration for the kingdom of God ; and some of the additional 
historical relics which it preserves, bear strong indications of 
the political views which were included in the idea. xix. 11 
— 27 ; xxiii. 2. But upon the whole, Jesus does not appear 
so exclusively the Jewish Messiah as in Matthew ; the more 
harsh texts in Matthew x. 5, 6 ; xv. 24, appearing to limit his 
mission to Jews only, are not found in Luke ; and he repre- 
sents Jesus (as might be expected from the companion of the 
Apostle to the Gentiles,) as the king indeed who was to 
reign over the house of Jacob, but whose salvation should 
extend to all people. 

Among minor peculiarities, the frequent use of the appel- 
lation " the Lord," as applied to Jesus, is another indication 
of greater remoteness of time and place than in Matthew. 






THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE. 171 

The latter, as well as Mark, preserves generally the simple 
designation Jesus, by which, with the addition of the name 
of his father or town, he was probably known in his lifetime. 
His disciples added, "the Master," "Jesus the Christ," "the 
Lord Jesus f but " the Lord" simply (6 Kvpiog) is a further 
gradation, since it is the term applied in the Septuagint to 
God. Yet in Luke it cannot be taken to be more than a 
term of indefinitely exalted reverence, for there are no other 
indications that he, any more than his two predecessors, had 
arrived at the notion of making Jesus participate in the attri- 
butes of Jehovah. 

VII. Upon the whole, the chief merit of Luke is that he 
was an industrious compiler : he made a large collection of 
stories concerning Christ, from what he had heard or found 
written, and put them into good Greek for the use of Theo- 
philus. But such a work, however well-written and interest- 
ing, does not add much to the evidence for the facts them- 
selves ; less indeed than Mark's ; for he was a follower of 
Peter, an eye-witness ; whilst Luke only accompanied Paul, 
who himself must have learned what he knew of the history 
of Jesus from the original eye-witnesses, and perhaps partly 
from hearsay. Moreover, Luke does not say that he himself 
learned his facts from eye-witnesses, which he probably 
would have done if he could ; since that, at least, was neces- 
sary to set his pretensions on a level with those of the writers 
before him. His assertion that " he had perfect understand- 
ing of all things from the first," he must be aware, would 
procure to his work less authority than if he could have said 
that he had his information from Peter, or Andrew, or James. 
But since it appears that he borrowed chiefly from previous 
writings,* or adopted existing traditions, the phrase was as 

* Schleiermacher, although he does not admit that Luke copied from 
Matthew and Mark, says of him, " He is, from beginning to end, no more 



172 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

recommendatory an one as could be adopted consistently with 
truth. 

VIII. The book of the Acts is a more orderly narrative, 
and in this the talent of Luke as a clear and forcible narrator 
seems to have more free play. In the first part many chasms 
and abrupt transitions occur, similar to those in his Gospel ; 
but when the writer comes to his own times, and the trans- 
actions in which he bore a part, he becomes clear and precise 
as to time and place. Moreover, in this latter part, the 
narrative contains a lesser proportion of miracles, and those 
mostly such as might easily be resolved into ordinary events 
miraculized by the imagination.* The style of the narrative 
shows that the writer was a zealous adherent of the church, 
a believer in its miraculous pretensions, and therefore not 
disposed to examine very rigidly stories favourable to the 
Christian cause. In this book, he falls into the style of 
Josephus, Herodotus, and most ancient historians, in embel- 
lishing his story with suitable speeches. The reverence with 
which the sayings of Jesus were recorded, probably restrained 
Luke to the mere reporting of such fragments as he could 
collect, or nearly so ; but in the Acts, he introduces numerous 
formal speeches. Amongst others, one of Gamaliel bears 
strong evidence of being Luke's own composition, since it is 
impossible that a doctor of the law,f in the year A. D. 34 or 
37, could say that Theudas rose up before his days, when, ac- 

than the compiler and arranger of documents which he found in existence." 
— Crit. Essay, p. 313. 

* In the last thirteen chapters of the Acts, the miracles recorded are, the 
vision of the man of Macedonia ; the casting out of the spirit of divination ; 
the earthquake at Philippi ; Paul's cures at Ephesus : the revival of Euty- 
chus ; the prophecy of Agahus ; Paul's prediction of the storm ; the viper 
at Melita ; the cure of Publius's father and others. 

f Ludovicus Capellus places the speech of Gamaliel at the beginning 
of Caligula's reign (viz. A. D. 37) ; Whitby, and others, in the twentieth 
of Tiberius (A. D. 34). The history itself purports that it was not long 
after Christ's death. 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE. 173 

cording to Josephus,* Theudas did not rise up till the procu- 
ratorship of Cuspius Fadus, or not before A. D. 44 ; although 
it was very natural that Luke, an inhabitant of Antioch, writing 
in the year A. D. 71 or 72, should forget the dates of some of 
the Judean insurrections, and attribute such a speech to Ga- 
maliel for want of knowing what was said; for, according to 
his account, the council was a secret one.f 



Thus it appears that the first three Gospels were written 
at a considerable distance of time from the transactions re- 
corded ; that it is not improbable, although not certain, that 
there may be some parts which the writers learned direct from 
the apostles or other eye-witnesses ; but that it is uncertain 
which these parts are, and that there is reason to believe that 
they are largely mingled with second-hand narrations, hear- 
say, and traditions which had passed through several stages. 



* " Whilst Fadus was procurator of Judea, a certain impostor, called 
Theudas, persuaded a very great multitude, taking tneir effects with them, to 
follow him to the river Jordan ; for he said he was a prophet, and that, 
causing the river to divide, he would give them a passage. By these 
speeches he deceived many, but Fadus sent out a troop of horse, who slew 
many, and took many prisoners. They cut off the head of Theudas, and 
brought it to Jerusalem. These things happened in Judea, while Cuspius 
Fadus was procurator." — Jos. Ant. xx. cap. 5, 1. Fadus was sent as pro- 
curator after the death of Herod Agrippa. A. D. 44. 

f The best vindication that Lardner can find for Luke is, that there must 
have been two Theudases, and that Josephus must have omitted the first 
(vol. i. p. 425). But it is not likely that so minute an historian should have 
omitted any notable attempt at insurrection ; and the speech implies that 
it was so, by classing it with that of Judas of Galilee (A. D. 6 or 7). The 
very grossness of Luke's blunder, in placing Theudas before Judas, that is, 
about forty years wrong, has been used as an argument that he could not 
have committed it. But events in any country might easily become mis- 
placed by half a century in the mind of a foreigner. It would not be sur- 
prising to find a Frenchman so inaccurate in his remembrance of English 
history as to imagine that the Manchester massacre occurred before Lord 
George Gordon's riots. 



174 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

The many agreements between the three are not in general 
of that kind which proceeds from several independent eye- 
witnesses narrating the same fact, because they borrowed 
from each other, or repeated the same current traditions. 

Le Clerc, indeed, said, " They seem to think more justly, 
who say that the first three evangelists were unacquainted with 
each other's design. In that way greater weight accrues to 
their testimony. When witnesses agree who have first laid 
their heads together, they are suspected." And Lardner 
adds, " I have all my days read and admired the first three 
evangelists, as independent witnesses ; and I know not how to 
forbear making the other opinion among those bold as well 
as groundless assertions,* in which critics too often indulge 
themselves, without considering the consequences." Never- 
theless, if it be allowed that the assertion has been shown to 
be well grounded, the consequences, whatever they be, must 
be admitted. 

To ascertain precisely the degree in which each evangelist 
was indebted to his predecessors, or to the same fixed tradi- 
tions, is interesting, but not of the first importance ; because 
in either case the value of the agreement in establishing the 
credibility of the narrative is very much diminished. 

It is undeniable that the repetition of Matthew's statements, 
by writers so near to him in time, and who had access to 
some of the original eye-witnesses, does, in some measure, 
confirm those statements; and the more so, as Mark and 
Luke appear to have exercised some discretion in the selec- 



* The objections of Lardner are, that no Christian writers before 
Augustine appear to have supposed that the first three evangelists had seen 
each other's Gospels ; that it was not suitable to the character of any of the 
evangelists to transcribe another historian ; that there would have appeared 
no need to repeat things already written ; that there are many seeming 
contradictions and numberless small varieties in the three, also some omis- 
sions, and some things peculiar to each. See Hist, of Apost., chap. x. 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE. 175 

tion. Therefore, there is a strong probability that the accor- 
dant portions of these three histories contain a tolerably 
correct outline of the chief events of Christ's life ; but some 
errors and embellishments might also find their way into all 
three by the same channels, viz. the mistakes or inventions 
of the first writer, or the traditions on which they all de- 
pended. In the case of miracles in particular, it is to be 
considered whether the same motives which led the first 
evangelist to exaggerate or to receive exaggerations, might 
not have led men circumstanced so similarly to himself as 
Mark and Luke were, to repeat a part of his statements. 
They have shaken Matthew's general credibility by rejecting 
some of his most prominent miracles ; and it may be ques- 
tioned whether their own position, as men of the same views 
and feelings, and defenders of the same cause, enables them 
to add from their own credibility what they have taken from 
him, in the case of the miracles which they confirm. 

It might be said that after admitting so much against the 
credibility of the evangelists, it is inconsistent to receive their 
testimony at all, or to pretend to gather from them any truth 
regarding the history of Christ. But this would be a contrary 
extreme. It is of the very nature of history to contain much 
incorrectness, since it must depend more or less on a series of 
links of human testimony. Therefore to ascertain the truth 
of remote historical facts is a peculiarly difficult attempt, 
although not altogether hopeless; and if the object be con- 

tsidered worth the pains, the inquirer must submit to the 
trouble of sifting narrations, of making allowance for mis- 
takes, ignorance, and peculiar biases, and in many cases be 
content to retain a very small grain of reality from the midst 
of a mass of invention. So in these three Gospels, after 
making every allowance for probable mistake and fiction, and 
especially of such a kind as would tend to aggrandize the 



176 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY, ETC. 

founder of the sect, there still seems to remain so much of 
reality, that the attempt of Jesus to assume the Messiahship 
his public preaching in Galilee and at Jerusalem, and his 
crucifixion, might be considered, from the testimony of these 
three writers alone, as facts deserving a place in history; 
which conclusion is strongly supported by other writings and 
subsequent events. 



( 177 ) 



CHAPTER VI. 

ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF THE GOSPEL OF 
ST. JOHN. 

The first three Gospels agree very well in the style of the 
discourses attributed to Christ, which are chiefly parables and 
short pithy sayings. They represent him as beginning his 
public preaching in Galilee, proceeding after some time to 
Jerusalem, and suffering there. The chief topic dwelt upon 
is the approach of the kingdom of heaven ; and they con- 
tain much concerning the fall of Jerusalem. 

But the Gospel of John is of a very different character. 
The discourses of Christ are here long controversial orations 
without any parables : he is made to journey from Galilee to 
Jerusalem, and back again, many times ; the kingdom of 
heaven is nearly lost sight of; the fall of Jerusalem never 
alluded to ; and we have, instead of these, several new sub- 
jects, viz. the incarnation of the word or logos in the person 
of Christ ; his coming down from heaven ; his relationship 
to the Father ; and the promise of the Comforter or Holy 
Spirit. Also, with few exceptions, a new set of miracles is 
attributed to Christ. 

From the resemblance of style, the author of this Gospel 
and of the three Epistles appears to be the same. In the first 
Epistle, he says, that he had been an eye-witness of the 
word of life. In the last two he calls himself " the elder." 
There was a John, usually called the elder or presbyter, to 
distinguish him from John the Apostle, the brother of James ; 



178 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

and Papias* calls him also " a disciple of Jesus." But the 
name " elder" was not uncommonly given to the heads of the 
church (1 Peter v. 1), and might be assumed by John the 
Apostle. In the Gospel, the writer is said to be the disciple 
whom Jesus loved. That this is the same as the brother of 
James is confirmed by this, that the other three Evangelists 
often name this John among the more confidential disciples 
of Jesus ; whilst the other John, the presbyter mentioned by 
Papias, does not appear at all. And since the church in 
general has attributed this Gospel to John the Apostle, there 
seems to be sufficient reason to believe that he and the be- 
loved disciple were the same. Consequently, this Gospel 
contains what is equivalent to an assertion that it was 
written by the Apostle John, and thus differs from the rest 
in stating its author. 

There is no external evidence before Irenseus (178), who 
said, "afterwards, i. e. after Luke wrote, John the disciple of the 
Lord, who also leaned upon his breast, likewise published a 
Gospel while he dwelt at Ephesus in Asia." Clement of 
Alexandria, and Origen, also speak of this as the last-written 
Gospel. There are several passages in the Fathers before 
Irenseus, having the appearance of quotations from or allu- 
sions to the Gospel and the 1st Epistle, viz. Hermas, a. d. 
100; Ignatius, 107 ; Polycarp, 108. The result most generally 
agreed upon, is the date of 97 or 98 for the Gospel.f 

We find in ch. xxi. 24, as follows, " this (the beloved disci- 
ple) is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote 
these things, and we know that his testimony is true." 
Grotius conjectures that "we" meant the church at Ephesus. 

* Euseb. H. E, 1. 3, c. 29. 

f Mill, Fabricius, Le Clerc, and Jones, are for 97 or 98. Lardner 
" does not presume to say exactly the year, but thinks it might be written 
in the year 68." 









THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 179 

In this case, the chapter in question, and therefore probably 
the whole Gospel,* does not come before us strictly as the 
writing of St. John, but rather as the report of what he 
wrote, given by some member or members of the Ephesian 
church. The Gospel has the appearance rather of a collec- 
tion of detached writings and discourses than of a continuous 
work ; and it seems highly probable that some other person 
than the aged Apostle himself should have been employed 
to put these together and transcribe them. And whether 
this compiler, transcriber, or amanuensis, may not have been 
so zealous as to add not only the last chapter, but also in 
some other parts to improve somewhat upon the Apostle's 
own words, is difficult to determine. Yet the general identity 
of the style is an argument that such liberties could not 
have been very extensive. 

II. The later date of this Gospel would account in a great 
measure for the difference between its tone and sentiments 
and those of the other three. After so long an interval 
from the fall of Jerusalem, the expectation of an immediate 
coming of the Son of Man had become comparatively faint ; 
the political character of the Messiah as a Jewish deliverer 
was nearly obsolete ; and the investing him with the attri- 
butes suggested by the Alexandrian Platonic philosophy, was 
a theme much more intelligible and interesting to the Greeks, 
perhaps also the philosophic Jews at Ephesus. The Apostle 
having been resident there for many years, f would naturally 
become conversant with the prevalent habits of thinking and 
speaking amongst the philosophical and religious world around 
him ; to which indeed the habitual respect of the Jews of 

* All the evidence from manuscripts confirms the argument derived 
from the style, that the last chapter is a genuine part of the Gospel. 

f The time when John came to Ephesus cannot be ascertained, but the 
opinions vary from a. d. 60 to 70. The chief datum is that he probably 
did not go there till after Paul had been there and written his epistle. 

N 2 



180 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

Palestine for their more learned brethren at Alexandria 
would have already predisposed him. Hence, although at 
first a partaker of the common expectations relative to the 
Jewish Messiah, he would be disposed to modify his notions 
according to the progress of events, to leave comparatively 
out of sight the political peculiarity which had always been 
a dangerous one, as affording ground for the charge of sedi- 
tion, and was now of minor interest ; and to set forth the 
religion and its founder in a light calculated to render both 
most honourable in the view of his hearers of another re- 
gion and almost another age. The title " King of Israel" 
is not entirely forgotten ; but the " Saviour of the world" is 
the more favourite appellation of Jesus in this Gospel. 

This Gospel appears accordingly to be the attempt of a 
half-educated but zealous follower of Jesus, to engraft his 
conceptions of the Platonic philosophy upon the original 
faith of the disciples. The divine wisdom, or logos, or light, 
proceeding from God, of which so much had been said in 
the Alexandrian school, he tells us became a man or flesh 
in the person of Jesus, dwelt for a time on earth, and 
ascended up where he was before, and where he had been 
from the beginning, into the bosom of the Father. The 
title " Son of God," applied by the Jews to the expected 
Messiah, but by the Platonists to the world itself, and after- 
wards to the logos, affords him another point of amalgamation ; 
and a term which had been understood by the Jews probably 
merely in the sense of election or adoption, as in the case of 
David, is by him put forth as indicating a more sublime and 
mysterious union. Consequently, this Gospel shows through- 
out a double or Christiano-Platonic object; first to prove 
that Jesus is the Christ, which was common to all the 
Apostles, and secondly that the Christ is the Son of God or 
logos which descended from heaven to give light to men. 






THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 181 

The essential faith he consequently puts in the simple 
form, believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and 
repeats this urgently as of primary necessity fof salvation, 
viii. 24; xi. 26; xiv. 1; xx. 31. " These things are written 
that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of 
God, and that believing ye might have life through his 
name." This limitation of the essential belief to the Mes- 
siahship of Jesus is in accordance with the representation 
of Christianity given by Paul, who had preached before 
John in the same place and probably to many of the same 
hearers : viz. — " If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the 
Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised 
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Rom. x. 9. The 
shade of difference is in the distinguishing attribute of the 
Messiah ; in Paul's view it is his resurrection ; in John's, his 
being the Word or logos. It is probable, moreover, that 
Paul urged the sufficiency of faith in Jesus in opposition to 
the supposed necessity of keeping the Jewish law ; John, in 
opposition to the dogmas of rising heresies. But the absence 
of any declaration on this point in countries where Paul had 
preached, indicates that John also had relinquished or much 
relaxed his Mosaism ; and the want even of allusion to the 
subject might proceed from its having grown comparatively 
out of date. 

III. Whilst the first three Gospels have principally an 
historical or narrative aim, viz. to give an account of the 
acts and sayings of Jesus, the object of the last is mainly 
an argumentative or controversial one, i. e. to enforce doc- 
trines, supply arguments, and answer objections ; and this 
more with reference to the position and thoughts of the 
Ephesians in the year 97, than to those of the inhabitants of 
Judea in the time of Pilate. It is true that there is to some 
extent a blending of both stages of thought, and that the 



182 



ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 



Apostle preserves probably some portion of the realities 
which had passed within or near his time 66 years pre- 
viously. Thus his description of the notions of the priests, 
xi. 47, 48, their fear lest Jesus should occasion the total sub- 
version of their state by the Romans, carries us back to the 
original transactions, and would be almost unintelligible 
unless compared with the other Gospels, In some places, 
as in the account of the crucifixion, he continues his nar- 
rative for a time as if without other motive than the in- 
terest of the subject. The texts quoted below are amongst 
some which bear strongly the appearance of being historical 
relics.* But in most chapters narrative forms but a small 
part, and has generally the subsidiary office of supplying 
occasion for the delivery of a doctrine. The events seem to 
be selected and arranged merely in order to give occasion for 
a miracle, or a declaration of faith.f The answers or objec- 
tions in the dialogues are evidently inserted to conduce to 



* I. 19. When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask 
him (John), Who art thou? 

I. 24. And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. 

I. 44. Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 

II. 18. Then answered the Jews, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing 
that thou doest these things 1 

III. 23. And John also was baptizing in Enon, near to Salim, because 
there was much water there. 

VI. 15. When Jesus perceived that they would come and take him by 
force to make him a king. 

VI. 30. What sign shewest thou then, that we may see and believe 
thee ? 

VII. 5. For neither did his brethren believe in him. 

X. 23. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. 

X. 24. If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. (Compare Matt. xvi. 20.) 

XI. 47 — 50. Council of the Pharisees, and advice of Caiaphas. 
XI. 54. Retreat of Jesus to Epharaim. 

XIX. 12. If thou let this man go, thou art not Ceesar's friend. 

f See i. 46 — 49, the meeting with Nathaniel and his speedy confession, 
" Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel." II. 1 — 
10, the marriage-feast ; xi. the whole story of Lazarus. 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN'. 183 

the effect of the sentence which Jesus is to utter.* And 
both friends and opponents usually make Christian admissions 
as full as the most zealous believer could desire ; much more 
certainly than the degree of acquaintance with Jesus, or 
other circumstances implied in the story would appear to 
warrant, f 

* See iv. 9 — 26. Conversation with the woman of Samaria ; whose 
ignorance of the meaning of living water, as well as her uncalled-for sug- 
gestion of the difference between Jewish and Samaritan worship, and her 
spontaneous mention of Messias, all give happy occasions for uttering 
some important points of Christian faith, agreeing with the state of ideas 
when John wrote. See also ver. 33. The inability of the disciples to com- 
prehend the nature of the meat of which Jesus speaks, although expressed 
very historically, is evidently introduced to give effect to the next verse. 
VI. 7, 9. Philip and Andrew fully state the difficulty which the miracle of 
the loaves was to meet. VI. 34. The Jews with much simplicity continue 
to petition for bread ; and viii. 52, cannot perceive that " never tasting 
death" may cover a sense different from natural death. XI. 12. The 
disciples show the same artificial ignorance as to the sense conveyed by the 
word " sleep." 

f I. 29. As soon as John the Baptist sees Jesus, he says, " Behold the 
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world." According to 
Matt. xi. 3, his faith at a much later date was not so far advanced as to 
acknowledge that Jesus was the Christ. And from Acts xviii. 25, it seems 
very doubtful whether John the Baptist and his sect did ever confess so much 
of Jesus. Ver. 34, John adds his record, that "this is the Son of God;" 
in 35, 36, repeats his saying, " Behold the Lamb of God." If the Baptist 
had been in the habit of giving such ample and frequent testimony in favour 
of Christ, how could his fervent disciple Apollos and the disciples of Ephe- 
sus have needed conversion to faith in Jesus, by so tardy a medium as 
Paul's preaching ? Acts xix. 3 — 5. But if John the Baptist be represented 
as believing fully at the mere sight of Jesus, his hearers are no less prompt 
in partaking of his belief. Andrew finds his brother Simon, and says, " We 
have found the Messias." i. 41. Nathanael's ample confession, ver 49, has 
but a slender basis in the indications of prophetic knowledge ascribed to 
Jesus, viz. his calling him an Israelite without guile, and his seeing him 
under the fig-tree. The Samaritans, who at a much later period, according 
to Luke, would not even receive Jesus into their villages, here are not only 
easily converted, but give an open confession, " we know that this is indeed 
the Christ, the Saviour of the world." iv. 42. However satisfactory this 
confession might sound in the preaching at Ephesus, it is probably more 
than Jesus would have wished for at that time, when he had not yet taken 
the resolution to proclaim himself openly. (See Matt. xvi. 20.) When 
Jesus retreats beyond Jordan, (John x. 41,) the many who resort to him 



184; ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

Chronological order and historical accuracy were therefore 
of but little importance to the writer; and if, as seems 
probable from the abruptness with which some passages 
begin, (ii. 13; iii. 1 ; viii. 1 ; xv. 1 ;) this Gospel consists 
of parts delivered by preaching or writing at different times, 
the order was still more likely to be neglected. Add to 
which, that the distance of time must have tended to con- 
fuse irretrievably the remembrances of both facts and order. 
Consequently this Gospel presents some notable discrepancies 
with the other three. For instance : 

II. 13. Jesus comes up to Jerusalem, and drives the 
buyers and sellers from the temple, soon after his baptism, 
and before his public preaching in Galilee. The other three 
place this in his last visit, and make it appear that this illegal 
act contributed to the determination of the council to appre- 
hend him. This harmonizes so much better with the whole 
history, that it seems more reasonable to suppose that John's 
disregard of chronology could extend to this degree, or that 
his compiler has to such a degree mal- arranged his discourses,* 
than to reject the concurrent voice of his predecessors. 

V. 1. Jesus comes up a second time to Jerusalem, before 
the feeding of the five thousand, of which visit no notice is 
taken in Matthew, who first mentions the intention of Jesus 
to go up to Jerusalem after that miracle. "From that time 
forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he 



give a convenient attestation to the writer's report of John the Baptist's 
testimony, " all things that John spake of this man were true," although 
we cannot conceive how any Jews at that time could have had the means 
of arriving at the conclusion that Jesus was " the Lamb of God, that taketh 
away the sins of the world," or even of understanding the phrase. The 
Pharisees, xi. 47, and Pilate, xviii. 38, are made to say all that the 
Christians could desire from them ; " this man doeth many miracles," and 
" I find in him no fault at all." 

* The passage ii. 13 — 25 might very well have been originally a separate 
narrative. 









THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 185 

must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things, &c." Matt, 
xvi. 21. This does not agree with the supposition that Jesus 
had already been twice to Jerusalem since the beginning of 
his public preaching. It would not be impossible, although 
from the current of the story unnatural, to suppose that a 
journey to Jerusalem unnoticed by the writer of Matthew, 
took place in the interval between some of the events recorded 
by him since the arrival of Jesus in Galilee ; and in this case, 
he must have given a version of the discourse in question 
conformable to his own erroneous impression. But since 
the chapter in John forms a complete isolated story, it is per- 
haps more probable that this visit was the same as some 
other, perhaps the following one in ch. vii.,* and that the 
mode of collocation has given the appearance of two successive 
visits. 

VII. 1. Another visit to Jerusalem not noticed by Mat- 
thew, Mark, or Luke. The date is given (feast of tabernacles,) 
and from this time John does not bring Jesus again into 
Galilee, but to the further side of Jordan. Hence it becomes 
necessary to intercalate this visit in Matt. xix. 1, " He de- 
parted from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judea beyond 
Jordan ;" an ellipse certainly inadmissible except on the sup- 
position that the compiler of Matthew endeavoured to give 
the form of consecutive narration to imperfect fragments. 

In some minor instances the story in John clashes more 
decidedly with that in the others. He excludes entirely the 
legend of the forty days' temptation by saying that Jesus 
went into Galilee the second day after his baptism, and that 
he was at Cana on the third day ; whereas the others say 
that immediately after his baptism he remained forty days in 
the wilderness. He represents Jesus as calling Simon and 

* The marks of time do not disagree. This latter visit took place at the 
time of the feast of tabernacles ; the former during a feast of the Jews. 



186 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

Andrew whilst John was still baptizing, i. 40, 41, and near 
Bethabara beyond Jordan ; Matthew places the first call of 
those two disciples both at a different time and a different 
place, viz. after John was cast into prison, and at the sea of 
Galilee, iv. 18.* See also the date of the supper at Bethany, 
John xii. 1 — 8, compared with Matt. xxvi. 2 — 12. 

To endeavour to reconcile John with his predecessors 
on the hypothesis, that all four wrote invariably true and 
correct history, is evidently hopeless. The discrepancies are 
so far important as to lead us inevitably to infer that in some 
of them, and probably in all four, there is a large measure of 
that incorrectness which proceeds from imperfect knowledge, 
forgetfulness, or neglect. In the case of John, they are to such 
an extent as to show that neither he nor his compiler paid 
much regard to the Gospels of his predecessors, or used them 
as a guide in forming a new one. An Apostle indeed could 
not be expected sedulously to frame his discourses so as to 
agree with the works of previous compilers, if he had known 
them ; but a disregard of them, allowing of manifest contra- 
dictions, implies either that those works were but little known 
in his church, or that they had not yet become standards of 
authority. 

It has been supposed that John wrote to supply the defi- 
ciencies in his predecessors. But there is no trace of such an 
intention ; in some places he narrates at much length the 
same incidents, and in his statement of his design, xx. 30, 31, 
makes no allusion to them. He tells us, xxi. 25, how nume- 
rous were the books which had been written concerning 
Jesus, but there is no distinctive notice of our three first 
Gospels. 

* Although the facts in Matthew's story do not exclude the possibility of 
a previous acquaintance between Jesus and the two disciples, the mode of 
expression evidently implies that the writer considered this to be the com- 
mencement of their discipleship. , 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 187 

Yet although the discrepancies imply at least partial error, 
they are not such as to invalidate entirely the history either 
of Matthew or of John in their main features. Jesus doubt- 
less, like all the Jews, made frequent visits to Jerusalem on 
the occasion of the feasts ; perhaps several after the Baptist 
began to preach : and John, for some reason which we cannot 
discover,* has selected these visits as his chief incidents, 
whilst Matthew preserved chiefly what happened in Galilee. 
Making allowance for some mistakes and transpositions in 
both, a great part of the incidents in John and Matthew 
harmonize.t And this not only in portions of narrative ob- 
viously corresponding, John i. 23, 42, vi. 5 — 14, 16 — 20, 30, 
xii. 1 — 8, xviii., xix. ; and in some relics of sayings, iv. 35, 38, 
44, xiii. 16, 20; (agreeing with Matt. ix. 37, xiii. 57, Luke x. 
24, Matt. x. 24, 40 ;) but in some instances which appear to 
have the force of undesigned coincidence. Compare 
John ii. 18. with Matt. xii. 38. demand of a sign. 

19. „ xxvi. 61. destroying the temple, 

iv. 1. „ iv. 12. motive for departure into 

Galilee, 
vi. 69. „ xvi. 16. confession of Peter, 

vii. 5 — 9. „ xvii. 22. the abode still in Galilee, 
xii. 19. „ xxi. 46. Pharisees' fear of the mul- 

titude, 
xviii. 1. „ xxvi. 30. Kedron and mount of Olives. 



* Possibly because John, having for a principal object to give controver- 
sial dialogues with the Jews, inclined to prefer the temple as the scene, 
rather than the villages and mountains of Galilee. 

f If John iv. 1, be admitted to coincide with Matt. iv. 12; John vii. 1 
— x. 39, to be passed over in Matt. xix. 1, the two seem in many things to 
support each other. But John vi. 4, has frustrated my attempt to obtain 
the duration of Christ's ministry. The very different conclusions which 
are come to on this point, from 1 to 3 years, seem to arise from the greater 
or less degree of exactness which commentators think it necessary to attri- 
bute to John. 



188 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

John has, in common with his predecessors, the prophetical 
testimony of the Baptist in favour of Jesus, i. 15, 26, 27 ; 
the descent of the Spirit as a dove upon Jesus, i. 32 ; the 
feeding of the 5000, vi. 5 — 14 ; Jesus walking upon the sea, 
vi. 16 — 20 ; the foretelling of the treachery of Judas, xiii. 21 
— 26 ; and of the denial by Peter, xiii. 36 — 38. The insertion 
of these stories in John, whilst he has passed over so many 
others, affords some additional argument that to these there 
might be a basis of reality. Some of them are related by 
John in terms so nearly agreeing with those in the others, 
that it seems probable either that his mode of narration was 
influenced by the very traditions which the others had 
adopted, or that he himself had been the source of those tra- 
ditions. 

IV. The additional miracles in this Gospel are mostly of a 
more bold and marvellous character than those in the others. 
They are generally represented as performed in the most 
public manner, without the injunctions to secrecy so frequent 
in the first three Gospels. The conversion of water into wine, 
according to this Gospel, was the beginning of the miracles 
of Jesus, and " manifested forth his glory :" it is strange that 
none of the other histories should hint at it, and that it should 
first appear in a writing of the year 97. He says that an 
angel went down at certain seasons into the pool of Bethesda, 
as if here recording not a popular notion, but a fact which 
he means to be believed as much as the rest of the story.* 
He gives us the raising of Lazarus in open day near Jeru- 
salem, the people coming out to meet Jesus on that account, 

* The genuineness of ver. 3, 4, containing the descent of the angel, has 
been disputed ; hut Bretschneider, Probabilia, p. 68, gives strong reasons for 
believing that they were written by the author of John, as well as the rest 
of the story. In Tertullian's time there was no trace of the pool remaining ; 
he wrote therefore that after the coming of Christ its efficacy ceased. De 
Baptismo, c. 5. 






THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 189 

and Lazarus himself eating and drinking in public ; whilst 
none of the preceding writers make any allusion either to 
this astonishing miracle itself, or to its consequences. And 
as if to supply the most convincing attestation possible of the 
divine mission of his master, he tells us that at Jerusalem, 
before the people, whilst Jesus was praying, a voice came from 
the sky to answer him, xii. 28. 

Admitting the greater part of this Gospel to have been 
written or dictated by St. John, about the year 97, for the 
use of the Ephesian church, we have still no guarantee of the 
Apostle's veracity or correctness of memory. At that time 
he must have been nearly 100 years old : his other writings 
show that he possessed a vivid imagination and strong feel- 
ings ; and it is well known that such persons are apt to min- 
gle truth and falsehood in their narratives even unintention- 
ally. But the Apostle was also under the strongest tempta- 
tion to indulge in fiction. He had been personally attached 
to Jesus, and believed him to be the Messiah. After the 
death of his Master, the Apostle's station in the church 
prompted him to take a prominent part in spreading the 
common belief. Interest and ambition, as well as private 
friendship and religious zeal, urged John to be a strenuous 
preacher of Jesus the Messiah. If any of the brethren were 
pressed too hard by unbelievers concerning the proof of the 
Messiahship of the carpenter's son, it was natural to look to 
the confidential followers of Jesus himself for assistance. 
These found it not so easy to convince others as themselves ; 
for the impression made by the life and character of Jesus 
could not be easily condensed into an argument fit to oppose 
to objectors, and the proofs from prophecy appeared to dis- 
passionate observers far-fetched and doubtful. The assertion 
of his miracles of healing and casting out demons was also 
liable to objections, since others had pretended to the same 



190 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OE 

powers. Hence the temptation continually to adopt or invent 
fresh stories of miracles, which might serve in the controversy 
as more indubitable proofs of a divine mission. In proportion 
to the distance of time and place from the scene of the ori- 
ginal transactions, this species of imposition became more 
easy. Accordingly, we find but few allusions to miracles in 
the Epistles ; abundant accounts of them in the four Gospels; 
and in this last Gospel, published much later than the others, 
and at Ephesus, bolder and more gross stories of miracles, 
as well as more confident appeals to them, than in any other. 
The Apostle had been for sixty-four years accustomed to 
hear exaggerated and fictitious accounts of the acts of Christ, 
and could not but observe their efficacy in promoting the 
faith of the church. For, since he puts this saying into the 
mouth of Christ, (John iv. 48,) te Unless ye see wonders and 
signs, ye will not believe," we may infer that he himself 
found it necessary to supply his hearers at least with narratives 
of such wonders and signs. And at that distance of time, 
amongst the strangers of Ephesus, there was no one capable 
of controverting his statements. 

The temptation to fiction on the part of the Apostle was of 
the strongest kind. All additional lustre thrown upon the 
person of Jesus was reflected upon him, the beloved disciple, 
a chief apostle, and leader in the church. The purest senti- 
ments arising from friendship and reverence for his master, 
would also prompt him to seize all opportunities of doing 
him honour; and who can assure us that the Apostle 
did not partake so far of the imperfections of human nature 
as, in some instances, to overlook the character of the means 
for the attainment of a good end ? Historical veracity would 
not appear to him of the chief importance. " He only is a 
liar who denieth Jesus to be the Christ," 1 Epist. ii. 22. He 
does not even pretend that his Gospel was written in order 






THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 191 

to give a correct history of Jesus, but he says, " these are 
written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son 
of God, and that believing ye might have life through his 
name." xx. 31. To communicate this, his own sincere belief, 
to others, was his main object ; and the stress which he laid 
upon it is visible throughout his writings, iii. 36, " He that 
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that be- 
lieveth not on the Son, shall not see life." vi. 69 ; viii. 24 ; 
ix. 35; xi. 15, 27; 1 Epist. v. 13. 

There is an important consideration which establishes 
some difference between the fictions of this writer and ordi- 
nary cases of false testimony. It is, that he supposed him- 
self to be writing under the influence of the Holy Spirit, 
xiv. 16 — 18, "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give 
you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 
even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, 
because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him : but ye 
know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 
I will not leave you comfortless : I will come to you." 26, 
" But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the 
Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, 
and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have 
said unto you." xv. 26, 27, "But when the Comforter is 
come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the 
Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall 
testify of me. And ye also shall bear witness, because ye 
have been with me from the beginning." He believed, 
therefore, that the Holy Spirit, which was given after Jesus 
was glorified and become invisible (vii. 39), was his represen- 
tative and the organ of communication with his disciples ; 
consequently that whatever was suggested by the Holy Spirit 
might be regarded as Jesus's own words. On this principle 
he would even consider the dictates of the Holy Spirit since 



192 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

the death of Jesus as of equal authority with the words 
spoken by Jesus when he was with them, or in the beginning. 
And if we allow that this writer, like many others, was liable 
to consider the offspring of his own imagination as the dic- 
tates of the Holy Spirit, it was natural that he should attri- 
bute to Jesus his own views and opinions without any con- 
sciousness of fraud ; for the distinction of the time at which 
the sentiment was first uttered would appear comparatively 
unimportant. The most dispassionate historians are apt to 
introduce their own views into the discourses they record ; 
much more would this be the case with a zealous defender of 
a church, interested in the controversies of his time, and 
believing himself under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 

Moreover this habit, of following his own imagination as 
the voice of the Holy Spirit, might extend to his narrative of 
facts. For it is well known that a strong bias will lead people 
almost unconsciously to distort and invent facts ; and, with 
such an earnest purpose as the writer had to prove that Jesus 
was the Messiah, he might not only mingle truth with false- 
hood unintentionally, but even fall into the persuasion that 
the Holy Spirit permitted such additions and improvements 
as he could not but know to be fictitious, but which seemed 
necessaiy to produce the desired effect upon his hearers. 

The following texts indicate that his statements were not 
implicitly received by all in his own time. iii. 11, "We 
speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and ye 
receive not our witness." 32, "What he hath seen and 
heard, that he testifieth, and no man receiveth his testimony." 
The strong asseveration of his veracity, when relating that 
blood and water issued from the wound in the side of Jesus 
(xix. 35), affords presumption that his assertions frequently 
met with considerable opposition. See also 1 Epist. iv. 6, 
" We are of God ; he that knoweth God, heareth us ; he that 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 



193 



is not of God, heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of 
truth and the spirit of error." 

V. The discourses attributed to Jesus are so similar in style 
to John's own Epistles, and so dissimilar to those of Jesus 
in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, that it is difficult to consider 
them as faithful reports. Instead of uttering short fragments, 
the form in which real sayings were most likely to be pre- 
served, the Jesus of this Gospel usually holds sustained dia- 
logues, or delivers long orations, sometimes of several chapters, 
and always in the very remarkable style of the writer himself. 
In ch. v. 18, the Jews seek to kill Jesus, upon which he 
makes a discourse of thirty verses on the authority given to 
the Son by the Father. In the answer to Nicodemus, iii. 11, 
Jesus is made to say, " We speak that we do know, and tes- 
tify that we have seen, and ye receive not our witness." The 
writer himself very often introduces this protestation ; but 
here it is unmeaning in the mouth of Jesus, since he was 
then only beginning his ministry, and Nicodemus was come 
expressly to receive his witness. And in the same speech 
Jesus is made to say several sentences agreeing almost lite- 
rally with some in John's Epistle.* A little further on, John 
the Baptist speaks also very closely in the style of the same 



* John iii. 16. (speech to Nicode- 
mus.) For God so loved the world, 
that he gave his only begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life. 

17. For God sent not his Son into 
the world to condemn the world, but 
that the world through him might 
be saved. 

1 8. He that believeth on him is not 
condemned : but he that believeth not 
is condemned already, because he 
hath not believed in the name of the 
only begotten Son of God. 



1 Epistle iv. 9. In this was mani- 
fested the love of God towards us, be- 
cause that God sent his only begotten 
Son into the world, that we might 
live through him. 

14. And we have seen and do tes- 
tify that the Father sent the Son to 
be the Saviour of the world. 

V. 10. He that believeth on the 
Son of God hath the witness in him- 
self: he that believeth not God, hath 
made him a liar, because he believeth 
not the record that God gave of his Son. 



194 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OP 

Epistle.* When Jesus was brought before Pilate, the other 
Evangelists relate, that, after admitting that he was King of 
the Jews, he answered nothing ; but John makes him converse 
very freely with Pilate on the nature of his kingdom ; and at 
ver. 11, ch. xix. he tells him that Judas, of whom Pilate knew 
nothing, was more sinful than he. In ch. xii. 32, Jesus says, 
"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto 
me;" and the people, by their answer, appear at once to under- 
stand that lifting up signified his death. Moreover Jesus is 
represented as calling the people or multitude "the Jews/'f a 
mode of expression very unnatural to himself, a Jew speaking 
to Jews, but quite natural to one writing at Ephesus long after 
the admission of the Gentiles. (See xiii. 33; x. 34; xviii. 20; 
vii. 19; viii. 56.) These, and numerous other instances, show 
so little care on the part of the writer to put into the mouth of 
Jesus expressions suitable to the time and circumstances de- 
scribed, that it appears most likely that he only expected these 
discourses to be received as his own interpretation of Christ's 
doctrine. We feel that it is the Evangelist himself speaking, 
rather than reporting; that the Jews, the disciples, and Jesus 
himself, in most places afford the dramatis personse, and his 



See above. 1 Epist. v. 12. He that 

hath the Son hath life ; and he that 

hath not the Son of God hath not 
life. 



* John iii. 36. (John the Baptist.) 
He that helieveth on the Son hath 
everlasting life ; and he that believeth 
not the Son shall not see life ; hut the 
wrath of God abideth on him. 

f The absurdity of this term, as we find it applied in John, does not seem 
to constitute an invincible objection to the authenticity of the Gospel, if we 
consider the probable long residence of John in Asia Minor, and the habit 
which many persons have of accommodating their mode of expression to the 
ideas which they are conscious exist in the minds of their hearers, rather 
than to their own knowledge. In the Acts, the chief opponents of the 
church were " the Jews," and by the time of John, the minor distinctions of 
Jewish sects had become still more completely superseded by the one grand 
distinction in the eyes of the church, of opposition to the name of Jesus. 
It is to be observed that he does sometimes introduce " the Pharisees," 
&c, when he leaves the controversial for the narrative style. 









THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 195 

recollections of events and places in Judea, the scenery, for 
conveying lessons to his little children in the Church. 

VI. This Gospel, more than any other, exhibits the cha- 
racteristics of the writer himself; and they do not disagree 
with what we know of the apostle John historically : a Gali- 
lean fisherman who when very young left all to follow Jesus, 
the favourite disciple of his master, subsequently one of chief 
authority in the church, introduced to philosophical specula- 
tions to which he had not been formally educated, and, at the 
time this Gospel was published, probably the last venerable 
remnant of the college of apostles. He is earnest and eloquent, 
but illogical and rambling ; his dicta follow one another fre- 
quently without any obvious connexion, and without any bear- 
ing upon the point in question. Like many men more indebted 
to feeling than to reason for their eloquence, he answers ob- 
jections, not by pertinent facts and arguments, but with a 
flow of his own favourite ideas.* He is authoritative and fre- 
quently dignified; but sometimes dogmatical, harsh, and free 
in the use of spiritual menaces. " He that believeth not the 
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." 
iii. 36.f The patient and elaborate argumentation of Paul 
was unsuited to his different intellectual power ; he enforces 
his point by vehemence and repetition more than by reason- 
ing, like one relying upon his apostolic infallibility and im- 
patient of opposition.! He aspires continually after the most 

* See discourse with Nicodemus, iii. In reply to the question of Nico- 
demus, " How can these things be ?" (being born again) Jesus (or the writer) 
reproves his ignorance, asserts the value of his own testimony, asks how 
he will believe if he tells him heavenly things, says the Son of Man must 
be lifted up like the Serpent, that believing in the Son brings eternal life, 
and finally leaves the question unanswered, iii. 31 — 36, have no connexion 
with the question of purifying which occasions the speech of the Baptist, 
See also vi. 42—65, vii. 27—29, viii. 22—26, xiv. 5, 6. 

t See also viii. 44, 55; x. 8, 26. 

X VIII. 47; 1 Epist. iv. 6; 2 Epist. 10; 3 Epist. 10. 

o2 



196 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

sublime abstractions in the manner of the philosophical 
schools ; but intermixes tales and dialogues in the Rabbinical 
style. He seeks to accommodate his language to the ideas of 
his hearers,* but his whole work is replete with Hebraical 
and Rabbinical phraseology and ideas, f as if his later acquisi- 

* I. 38, 41 ; iv. 25 ; vi. 1, 4 ; xix. 40. 

f Tanchuma, fol. 61, 3. For there is no light except the life, as saith 
Proverbs xvi. 15, In the light of the king's countenance is life. Compare 
John i. 4. 

Midrasch Ruth in Sohar Chadasch, fol. 67, 2. on Prov. xx. 27. The can- 
dle of the Lord is the soul of man. What doth the candle ? It shineth in 
the darkness. Compare John i. 5. 

Tanchuma, 57, 2. I will dwell (pitch my tent) in the midst of you. This 
expression applied to the Shechinah. Comp. John i. 14. 

Debarim rabba, 2 fol. 251, 1. Joseph confessed his country .... and he 
denied not, but said, &c. Sohar in Jalkut Rubeni, 145, 4. Jethro con- 
fessed, and lied not. A Jewish mode of assertion. Comp. Johni. 20. 

Jalkut Rubeni, 30, 4. The Messiah beareth the sins of the Israelites. 
John i. 29. 

Sohar Genes, fol. 6. R. Eleazar and R. Abba meeting a celebrated 
teacher on his road, say to him, Behold thou wouldest not tell us thy name ; 
where, I pray, is the place of thy dwelling ? John i. 38. 

A mark of holiness to pray in remote places, as under the fig-tree, rather 
than in public places. Breschith rabba, sect. 62, fol. 60, 3. R. Jose and 
his disciples rose in the morning, and studied under a fig-tree. John i. 49. 

Chagigah, fol. 13, 1. A young man who makes a certain search before 
the time, is consumed by lightning, and the reason is given, " because his 
time was not yet come." John ii. 4. 

Bammidbar rabba, fol. 238, 1. At that time, when Moses ascended into 
heaven, he heard the voice of God. John iii. 13. 

To judge, npivetv, used frequently in Jewish writings, Talmud, &c, in the 
sense of condemning. John iii. 17. 

To do the truth and to do a lie, for doing well or evil, a common He- 
braism. Levit. xix. 35. Deut. xxv. 16. Jerem. viii. 10, &c. Midrasch in 
Jalkut Simeoni. Whosoever doeth the truth shall be firm, but he who 
doeth a lie shall not be strengthened. John iii. 21. 

The friend of the bridegroom a regularly defined office among the Jews. 
John iii. 29. 

Jalkut Rubeni, fol. 42, 2. Let a man beware of cultivating friendship 
with a Cuthsean (Samaritan). John iv. 9. 

To drink of his waters, a common phrase for being his disciple. Chagiga, 
fol. 3, 1. They replied to R. Joshua, We are thy disciples, and we drink 
of thy waters. John iv. 14. 

Sohar Chadasch, fol. 45, 1. Speaking of the times of the Messiah, From 






THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 197 

tions had not been able to displace that style of thought and 
expression with which the schools of Judea had imbued him. 



that time the prayers of the Israelites will ascend to God from whatsoever 
place they are poured forth before the holy King. John iv. 21 . 

Psalm cxlv. 18. The Lord is nigh unto all that call upon him, to all 
that call upon him in truth. John iv. 24. 

Berachoth, fol. 43, 2. Among the six things forbidden to the disciples 
of wise men, is to talk with a woman in the public way. John iv. 27. (they 
wondered.) 

Numb. xvi. 28. Moses says, I have not done these works of myself. 
John v. 30. 

A common phrase in the Talmud ; Rabbi N. came in the name of Rabbi 
N., i. e. he taught the things which he had heard from him. John v. 43. 

Sohar Chadasch, 12, 3. We pray God to give us a son, who may do 
his work. John vi. 28. 

Synopsis Sohar, p. 87. If any one desireth to attach himself to God, God 
taketh hold of him, nor letteth him go. John vi. 44. 

Sohar Chadasch, 40, 4. When a man turneth to the Lord, he is filled as 
a fountain with living waters, and his streams go forth to men of every 
tribe. John vii. 38. 

Many of the Rabbins considered it a profanation of the law to read it be- 
fore the common people. John vii. 49. 

Ketavoth, fol. 27, 1 . A man speaking for himself is not believed. No 
man giveth testimony for himself. John viii. 13. 

Sohar Numbers, 73, 291. Whosoever giveth labour to the law, he is free 
in all things. John viii. 32. 

Avoda Sara, 10, 2. on Obad v. 18. These things are understood of those, 
who do the works of Esau. John viii. 39. 

Sohar Chadasch, fol. 27, 3. The wicked are twice called " Sons of the old 
serpent, who slew Adam and all descending from him." John viii. 44. 

Jevamoth, fol. 47, 1. R. J ehuda reproaches a person, As for thy words, 
thou art a Samaritan whose testimony is worth nothing with us. John 
viii. 48. 

Sohar Chadasch, fol. 15, 2. We find no shepherd who layeth down his 
life for the flock, like Moses. John x. 11. 

Midrasch Ruth in Sohar Chadasch, fol. 59, 2. This (disobedience) is the 
perverse path, which is called night. John xi. 10. 

Breschith rabba, 94, 92, 3. It is better to slay one man than to injure a 
whole society. John xi. 50. 

Men were supposed by the Jews to be elected to the office of prophet 
without regard to their inclinations or characters, as Balak. Jalkut Simeoni, 
part 2, fol. 98, 3. No one of the prophets knew what he prophesied, ex- 
cept Moses and Esaias. John xi. 51. (Caiaphas.) 

Synopsis Sohar, p. 109, n. 2. In paradise are certain mansions for the 



198 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

His Judaism in respect to the law of Moses is obscured by 
the preponderance of philosophic notions, and the more en- 
larged ideas which nearly all the Christians had admitted 30 
years after the fall of Jerusalem. He is aware that the time 
was to come when neither at Mount Gerizim nor at Jerusalem 
alone men should worship the Father, and that Jesus was to 
have many sheep besides those of the first fold in Judea. He 
partakes even of the feeling which seems to have prevailed 
among the Christians of Asia Minor in Paul's time, that Ju- 
daism, which in many cases probably he merely personifies un- 
der the name of " the Jews/'' must now be considered an anta- 
gonist power to Jesus or Christianity. But traces of his early 
creed continually appear, and he frequently reverts from the 
more liberal Greek style of answering objections by counter- 
reasoning, to appeals to the authority of the law and the pro- 
phets v. 39 ; vii. 19. x. 35.* As if conscious that the de- 
gree to which he carried the notion of an incarnation, " I and 
the Father are one," and " he who hath seen me hath seen 



pious of the Gentiles, and for the kings of the world who do good to the Is- 
raelites. John xiv. 2. 

Sohar Genes. 76, 299. R. Pinchas said : Before the righteous dieth, the 
bath kol exclaimeth thus to the righteous in paradise, Prepare a place for 
him who is coming. John xiv. 2. 

Bammidbar rabba, sect 14, 223, 4. R. Jehoshua said : That generation 
is not fatherless, in which R. Eliezer son of Azariah liveth. John xiv. 18. 

Criminal proceedings were distinguished by the Jews into three kinds ; 
of sin or crime, when manifest sinners were condemned and punished ; of 
justice or righteousness, when one unjustly accused was defended against op- 
pression, attack, or false witness ; of judgment, when the condemned party 
had to suffer what he had done to the other. John xvi. 8. 

This is only a small specimen of the numerous instances collected by 
Lightfoot and Schoettgen, Horae Heb. The subject is important as it tends 
to prove chiefly by means of latent Hebraisms, that this Gospel was written 
by one originally a Jew, notwithstanding some appearances to the contrary ; 
and so far it adds to the probability of John's being the originator of it. 

* In the same Jewish spirit, iv. 5, 22; xii. 38 — 41. 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 199 

the Father," sounded at variance with Hebrew ideas, he labours 
on this subject to apologize, explain, and reconcile, x. 33 — 36.* 
There prevails however throughout a certain spirit of elevation 
proceeding from the mystic speculations of Platonism, which 
however perplexing and unintelligible, allured men to the ex- 
ercise of their highest powers. The Galilean Platonist la- 
bours, amidst the difficulties of imperfect diction and inaccu- 
rate habits of reasoning, to express his conceptions that there 
are higher things before men than the common objects of 
sense, reaches from the more accessible or earthly doctrines 
to the more sublime or heavenly ones, and blending his 
glimpses of philosophic truth with zeal for his church and 
affection for his master, labours incessantly to prove that Jesus 
is the emanation of Deity, and therefore Deity itself, which 
gives light to the world and a higher life to men. With his 
controversial aim and exclusive attachments, it was not to be 
expected that he should admit any kindred or rival seons ; the 
Greeks might proclaim Plato or Epicurus, and rival Jews 
Simon Magus, but in his view all besides Jesus were thieves 
and robbers : in him alone the Supreme Good, the Father 
appears visibly, and he alone is the light shining for a little 
time in the darkness which comprehendeth it not. 

But it is when the writer descends into thoughts and 
feelings more common to humanity that his chief power is 
felt. His picture of Jesus bequeathing his parting benedic- 
tions to the disciples, seems fully to warrant the idea that 
the author is one whose imagination and affections had re- 
ceived an impress from real scenes and real attachments. 
The few relics of the words, looks, and acts of Jesus, which 
friendship itself could at that time preserve unmixed, he ex- 

* The tone of the answer to Philip, xiv. 10, 11, implies that the oneness 
of Jesus with the Father was still to many a strange and imperfectly under- 
stood doctrine. 



200 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 



pands into a complete record of his own and the discipl 
sentiments ; what they felt he makes Jesus speak. The 
remembrance of their companion and master he represents 
as imparted to them by himself, — the peace given, not as the 
world giveth ; and the whole of the recollections, suggestions, 
and influences, derived directly or indirectly from Jesus, 
which since his departure had formed the solace of the dis- 
ciples and the main-stay of their faith, he identifies with the 
operation of the Holy Spirit, and embodies into the Comforter 
deputed by Jesus to represent him in his absence. To resolve 
all that he has felt into the operation of his own mind, would 
appear very strange and cold metaphysics to one of the school 
of Galilee ; Jesus himself is to come to them and be seen by 
them in the Paraclete, xiv. 18, 19. 

Looking rigidly at the merit of this Gospel in point of 
morality, it is perhaps as inferior to Matthew in this respect 
as it is superior in depth of feeling and pathos. There are 
few, if any, of those weighty moral lessons of universal 
acceptation which we find Jesus so frequently delivering 
elsewhere. To exalt and deify Jesus may be an office highly 
congenial to the feelings of a follower and friend ; but it does 
not take the same rank with the inculcation of mercy and 
justice. This Gospel, if alone, would leave the impression that 
belief in Jesus as the Christ, and the recognition of the high 
offices which the writer labours to attribute to him, is the 
chief obligation laid upon man. The commandment to love 
one another is certainly enforced with much strength and 
pathos; but the commandment partakes too much of an 
exclusive spirit -, it is for the Christian sect alone ; it is not 
the language of wide philanthropy, "love all men;" but, 
"I pray not for the world, but for these whom thou hast 
given me out of the world." 

To establish the pre-eminence and dignity of his master, 



es 7 






THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 201 

is the chief object of the writer. But he labours also to 
prove that the authority of Jesus was bequeathed by him to 
his apostles. " I have given them thy words, and the world 
hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as 
I am not of the world," xvii. 14. " As thou hast sent me into 
the world, even so have I also sent them into the world," 18. 
The spiritual powers to be wielded by them, after the de- 
parture of the first Shepherd, were to be of the most ample 
kind. " And in that day ye shall ask me nothing : verily, 
verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in 
my name, he will give it you," xvi. 23. " Whose soever sins 
ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whose soever sins 
ye retain, they are retained," xx. 23. There is some evidence 
that in the case of John as well as of Paul, this bold assertion 
of authority was not unneeded. The disciple was not above 
his master; and as Jesus had met with neglect or opposition 
in his life-time, so was John prevented by a Diotrephes, a 
Cerinthus, and the Nicolaitans, from enjoying, during his 
personal ministry in the church, that submissive homage so 
readily conceded to him when he had become no more than 
a venerable name. 

It has been seen, that if John be admitted to be the author 
of this Gospel, whilst the hypothesis of real miracles be re- 
jected, it becomes inevitable to charge the apostle with wilful 
fiction ; or at least with allowing his imagination to take the 
place of his memory to such a degree as is nearly equivalent 
to it. And the degree and kind of moral excellence which 
we recognize in the work itself, by no means disagree with 
such a conclusion. On the contrary, zeal and affection for 
Jesus, combined with a tendency to sublime mysticism, were 
likely rather than otherwise to produce a habit of pious fraud 
in discoursing concerning him to others; which kind of 
discourse, by length of time, would become hardly distin- 



202 ON THE DATE AND CREDIBILITY OF 

guishable in the mind of the individual from more honest 
narration. There does not appear in this Gospel any of that 
high-toned morality which cultivates the love of abstract 
truth, apart from interest and feeling. This is to be sought 
for chiefly amongst the most philosophic as well as benevolent 
minds ; and even amongst such it is perhaps not very com- 
mon. But in an uneducated Galilean disciple — apparently 
of moderate intellect, deep feeling, and vivid imagination, a 
partizan among opponents, of a nation with whom religious 
fables and legends formed a favourite and important part of 
their literature — such a moral attainment must have excited 
our surprise ; the absence of it can leave none. 

The character of Jesus in this Gospel, with the ex- 
ception of the parts where simple realities seem to break 
through, is perhaps on the whole less within the reach of our 
sympathies than in the preceding ones. In order to fulfil 
the objects of the writer, he is made to move and speak as a 
mystical and sublime personage, condescending to make a 
temporary sojourn in, rather than belonging to, this world. 
He seldom opens his mouth without conveying an intimation 
or direct assertion of his own high offices and nature. The 
perpetual and authoritative claim of adoration may be thought 
in this Gospel to overpower the spontaneous and pleasing 
homage which his character and precepts must more or less 
excite. This however was naturally regarded as an excellence 
rather than a defect by the church ; and the Gospel of John 
has been, since the time of Origen, regarded with peculiar 
favour, as showing forth the divinity, whilst the others taught 
only the humanity, of the Christ. 



Since writing the above, I have read Bretschneider's Probabilia, which, 
as Credner says, comprises all that can be said against the authenticity of 
the Gospel of John. It is undoubtedly of great weight ; and can only be 



THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 203 

met by the supposition that the apostle had become in a great measure 
estranged from his earlier associations, and spoke or wrote much more with 
reference to the controversies of his time, than as an historian. 

The chief objections of Bretschneider are : — The unsuitableness of the 
discourses of Jesus, the Baptist, and the Jews, and their extreme difference 
of character from those in the earlier Gospels : — Stories entirely fictitious, 
or an admixture of the fictitious with real incidents, such as show that he 
was neither a companion of Jesus, nor an eye-witness : — Ignorance of the 
geography, customs, and modes of thought of Judea, to such an extent as 
to show that the writer was not even a native of Palestine ; for instance, 
Sychar for Sichem, iv. 5 — 7 (this seems however satisfactorily answered 
by Credner) ; Bethany beyond Jordan, i. 28, in the best manuscripts as 
approved by Griesbach, and not Bethabara, which is a spurious emenda- 
tion ; iEnon spoken of as a town, whilst it probably meant only fountains, 
iii. 23 ; Siloam falsely translated sent, ix. 7; the high priesthood apparently 
considered annual, xi. 49 — 52 ; the passover-supper placed a day wrong, if 
the other three are right, which difference might be explained by supposing 
the writer ignorant of the Jewish mode of beginning the day at 6 o'clock 
in the evening. The Gospel generally appears framed so as to meet the 
objections which are found in the mouths of Celsus, Trypho, and other 
opponents in the second century. The Apocalypse does not appear to be 
by the same writer as the Gospel, and moreover is not itself proved to be 
by John. The first epistle is from the same writer as the Gospel ; but the 
testimony from Papias, Polycarp, Irenaeus, &c, is not sufficiently clear to 
prove that this was John, in the face of the above difficulties. The appa- 
rent quotations from the Gospel in Hennas, Ignatius, &c, might only be 
quotations from the same traditions. 

Part of these objections, it is obvious, might be answered at the expense 
of the evangelist's historical fidelity. With respect to Judaisms, it will 
perhaps be thought by the students of Lightfoot and Schoettgen that there 
are more of these latent than Bretschneider admits ; at any rate that the 
writer exhibits many remarkable resemblances to the writers in the Talmud, 
although there might be in him a larger proportion of Hellenisms and 
Alexandrianisms. The similar passages in the Fathers do generally, con- 
sidering the peculiar style of the fourth Gospel, and of the first Epistle of 
John, bear the appearance of quotations or recollections from these scriptures, 
and thus prove at least so much, that they were writings of authority from 
nearly the beginning of the second century. See especially Polycarp, 
iii. 1 — 3; Hermas, Simil. ix. v. 117; Comm. iii. 2; Ignatius to Magnes. iii. 2. 
The geographical and historical objections are difficult to dispose of, except 
by supposing that the Gospel, as we have it, was not written by the apostle 
himself, but is rather a collection of his discourses or writings made by 
some follower, disciple, or some member of his church, who in endeavour- 
ing to connect and embellish, has made mistakes. 

But the many apparent realities, not borrowed from the other three, yet 
agreeing with the history preserved in them (which part of the subject is 
not considered by Bretschneider), form perhaps the most important reason 
for concluding that this Gospel originated in great part from, if not actually 
written by, the apostle. 



( 204 ) 



CHAPTER VII. 

ON THE RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 

I. Peter and the other apostles were dismayed for a time 
by the death of Jesus ; but having become persuaded that 
he was the Messiah, and having abandoned all for his cause, 
they comforted themselves with the belief that he was taken 
up into heaven like Moses and Elias, and would soon appear 
again to fulfil his promises and restore the throne of Israel. 
They determined then to maintain their society ; and having 
assembled in an upper chamber those of the disciples who 
had not yet dispersed themselves, they agreed to preach that 
their Master was risen from the dead. "Wherefore of these 
men which have companied with us, all the time that the 
Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the 
baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up 
from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his 
resurrection." — Acts i. 21, 22. 

The resurrection of the dead was a stirring question at 
that time, and was part of the creeds of both the Pharisees 
and Essenes. The doctrine, therefore, that Jesus had risen 
from the dead, in a spiritual sense at least, would easily be 
admitted by the mass of the people, and, indeed, cannot be 
disputed by persons of any age believing in the immortality 
of the soul. 

It seems probable that the original belief among the 
apostles was merely that Christ had been raised from the 
dead in an invisible or spiritual manner ; for where we can 
arrive at Peter's own words, viz., in his Epistle, he speaks of 
Christ as being " put to death in the flesh, but made alive in 






ON THE RESURRECTION, ETC. 205 

the spirit" 1 Pet. iii, 18,* OavarwOeig juev aapKi, "^wottol^Quq 
Se rw wvsviJ.aTi.-f That the last phrase signifies a mode of 
operation invisible to human eyes appears from the following 
clause, which describes Jesus as preaching, also in the spirit, 
£v <£>, to the spirits in prison. 

But some of the disciples soon added to this idea of an 
invisible or spiritual resurrection, that Jesus had appeared to 
many in a bodily form. In the book of Acts, the apostles 
are frequently made to profess themselves "witnesses, jiap- 
rvpzg, of the resurrection of Jesus." But as the word does 
not signify, of necessity, an eye-witness, but rather an as- 
sertor or testifier, this declaration of the apostles may mean 
only that they believed, and were ready to assert, that he 
was risen. That they had actually seen him alive since his 
supposed resurrection, is quite a distinct assertion, and not 
included in the former. And it is this latter point which it 
chiefly concerns us to examine. First, let us collect all the 
testimonies concerning the resurrection found in the book of 
Acts, which, it must be remembered, is not from the pen of 
an apostle, but of Luke, who does not tell us that he was 
present at the earlier transactions which he relates. 

Acts i. 22, Of these men must one be ordained to be a witness 
with us of his resurrection. 

Acts ii. 24, Whom God hath raised up. 32, This Jesus hath 
God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. 

* The genuineness of the first Epistle of Peter seems to be very well 
established. (See Lardner, vol. vi. p. 254.) But, of the second, Eusebius 
said that it was not received in ancient times, but was read, because it 
appeared to many to be useful. And to the sceptical, ch. i. 14, affords 
suspicion of its spuriousness. 

f The received translation is, "in the flesh — by the spirit;" but it does 
not appear why the preposition should be changed. 1 Pet. iv. 6, seems to 
be a parallel place, and shows that the insertion of the article does not 
give a different sense to irvev/j.aTi. "By the Spirit," (Matt. iv. 1,) is wo 
tov Ttveufxaros. 



206 ON THE RESURRECTION AND 

Acts iii. 15, And killed the Prince of Life, whom God hath 
raised up, whereof we are witnesses. 

Acts iv. 1, 2, The Sadducees came upon them, being grieved 
that they taught through Jesus the resurrection of the 
dead. 

10, Whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead. 

20, For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen 
and heard. 

33. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the 
resurrection of the Lord Jesus. 

Acts v. 17, Then the high priest rose up, and all they that 
were ivith him (which was the sect of the SadduceesJ, and were 
filled with indignation. 

Acts v. 30, The God of our Fathers raised up Jesus, whom 
ye slew and hanged on a tree. 

Acts x. 40, 41, Him God raised up the third day, and 
shewed him openly. Not to all the people, but unto witnesses 
chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with 
him after he was risen from the dead. — Peter's speech. 

Acts xiii. 30 — 37, But God raised him from the dead. And 
he was seen many days of them which came up with him from 
Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people 
For David was laid unto his fathers, and saiv corrup- 
tion: but he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption. — 
Paul's speech at Antioch in Pisidia. 

Acts xvii. 18, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange 
Gods, because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. 

Acts xvii. 31, Whereof he hath given assurance to all men, in 
that he hath raised him from the dead. 

Acts xxiii. 6, / am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee ; of the 
hope and resurrection of the dead am I called in question. 

Acts xxiv. 21, Touching the resurrection of the dead I am 
called in question by you this day. 






ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 207 

Acts xxv. 19, They had certain questions against him of their 
own superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul 
affirmed to be alive. 

Acts xxvi. 8, Why should it be thought a thing incredible 
with you that God should raise the dead ? 22, 23, / continue 
unto this day, witnessing — that Christ should suffer, and that 
he should be the first that should rise from the dead. 

In only one of these speeches is Peter made to say that the 
witnesses had seen Jesus, (x. 40, 41.) And here we have 
little reason to think that we have Peter's exact words. For, 
at the distance of abont forty years at which Luke wrote, he 
could only have a general impression of the purport of the 
apostles' early discourses ; and since by that time the stories 
of the re-appearance of Jesus had grown into general repute, 
and were believed by Luke himself, it was natural for him to 
mingle his own and the popular belief in his report. All that 
the apostles had said concerning the resurrection, although 
applicable at first only to an invisible and supposed resurrec- 
tion, would, in consequence of the prevalence of the stories 
alluded to, come to be understood as attesting a bodily re- 
appearance. The distinction between the two kinds of asser- 
tion might easily be overlooked, and the one, when reported 
at second-hand and from hearsay, be changed into the other. 
It has been seen in the case of Gamaliel, that Luke allowed 
himself to fill up what he considered suitable speeches for his 
personages ; we are therefore on surer ground when quoting 
the apostles' own writings. 

In Peter's first Epistle, all the testimonies are these — 

I. 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
which, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again 
unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the 
dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that 
fadeth not away. 20, 21, Who (Christ) vms pre-ordained 



208 OX THE RESURRECTION AND 

before the foundation of the ivorld, but was manifested in these 
last times for you, who by him do believe in God that raised him 
up from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope 
might be in God. 

III. 18, Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by 
(in ?) the spirit. 

This is the language of a man who sincerely believed that 
Christ had been raised from the dead. Bnt the testimony to 
his having appeared again in a bodily form is wanting. 
Peter does not say or imply that he had seen Jesus alive 
again; and at verses 7 and 13, ch. i., he speaks of his 
appearing as an event still to come. " That the trial of your 
faith might be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at 
the appearing of Jesus Christ." " Hope to the end, for the 
grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of 
Jesus Christ/'' 

The Epistle of James does not mention the resurrection of 
Jesus. 

Neither do the Epistles of John, nor that of Jude, allude 
to it. 

The reasons for concluding that Matthew the apostle did 
not write the Gospel under his name have been stated. 

John remains the only one of the twelve apostles who can 
be said to have asserted that he had seen Jesus alive after his 
death ; and the reasons for supposing this apostle capable of 
fiction have been considered. 

The argument, therefore, that a disbelief of the resurrection 
of Christ renders it necessary to attribute wilful falsehood to 
the twelve apostles rests on an over-statement. This charge 
need only apply to John. The extent of deception proveable 
upon Peter only amounts to this, — that he allowed stories 
which he knew to be false to become current, without leaving 
on record his contradiction of them. But it will be seen 



ASCENSION OF CHRIST, 209 

shortly that there is reason to believe that Peter did not him- 
self confirm these stories. With respect to the other apostles, 
Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, the two Jameses, 
Matthew, Simon Zelotes, Jude, and Matthias, it is seen that 
we have little or no testimony from them upon the point in 
question. It seems probable that they, as well as Peter and 
John, at first treated the stories of the appearance of Jesus as 
idle tales, but in the end allowed them to pass current with- 
out protest. In the perplexity occasioned by the removal of 
the body of Jesus in a manner unknown to them, they might 
easily be led to believe some of these tales ; and for such of 
them as they could not but know to be false, the honour of 
the church might be in later times a sufficient motive for 
silence at least. 

In all parties, and particularly such as are hard pressed by 
opponents, men are unwilling to produce an appearance of 
disunion by contradicting their associates. They would rather 
let their party bear the burden of some extravagant but well- 
meant assertions, than cool the zeal of valuable adherents by 
an ill-timed rigour. The apostles having preached that 
Jesus was raised from the dead, their followers soon spread 
accounts of his having appeared to them in visions or otherwise. 
Perhaps some of the apostles believed that they had had such 
visions : at any rate, it was not to be expected that they should 
feel much offended at such rumours, or that they should take 
much pains to prove their falsehood. They were intent upon 
proving that their master was the Messiah, and had risen from 
the dead ; and it might appear to them harsh and unnecessary 
to contradict stories which assisted the faith of the multitude. 

It may be asked, If Jesus had not really appeared to them, 
what was their motive for preaching so earnestly the novel 
doctrine of his resurrection ? Why should they make this 
the most prominent topic in almost every speech and writing? 



210 ON THE RESURRECTION AND 

The answer is, that, without this doctrine, their cause must 
be given up. A crucified malefactor was not the Messiah of 
the prophets ; and if all they could say for Jesus ended in 
this, their claim for him would seem to bear absurdity on the 
face of it. But that he had risen, ascended into heaven, and 
was soon to come again, opened a very different view of the 
matter ; he might then still be the Messiah, and his cruci- 
fixion, which for a moment had appeared even to themselves an 
end of their hopes, became a very trifling objection. The 
version of the Messiahship which allowed of the continuance 
of their warmly-cherished projects and attachments, would be 
eagerly welcomed. The difficulties in the eyes of more cool 
observers would only add to the ardour of earnest partizans, 
as affording scope for the exercise of faith. The unwilling- 
ness of the disciples to renounce a cause to which they were 
so strongly engaged might thus of itself have begun to sug- 
gest the idea of a resurrection ; but if we add to this the disap- 
pearance of the body, of which they had ocular demonstration, 
followed by reports of his having appeared, which came to 
their ears, the evidence of the resurrection of Jesus might 
easily seem to men in their cicumstances so strong as to lead 
them to class it amongst the things which they had seen and 
heard. Thus their master was proved to them to be the 
Messiah by the resurrection from the dead, and thus they 
must prove him so to others. 

II. Paul did not join the church till some time after the 
death of Jesus, and could therefore only say what he had been 
told concerning his resurrection ; but as he was the founder 
of Gentile Christianity, the nature of his testimony forms an 
important feature in the inquiry. 

The grounds on which he embraced the cause of the church 
were, according to his own statement, the direction of the 
Holy Spirit, and his belief that the Messiahship of Jesus ful- 






ASCENSION OT CHRIST. 211 

filled the prophets. " Wherefore I give you to understand, 
that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus ac- 
cursed : and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by 
the Holy Ghost/' 1 Cor. xii. 3 .* " Whereof (the church) I am 
made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which 
is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God ; even the 
mystery which hath been hid from ages, and from generations, 
but now is made manifest to his saints ; to whom God would 
make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery 
among the Gentiles ; which is Christ in you, the hope of 
glory," Col. i. 25— 27. f 

But, besides the motives which men acknowledge to them- 
selves, they are often unconsciously actuated by others arising 
from their position and character. And in the case of Paul, 
it is reasonable to conjecture that an active and enterprising 
spirit, which rendered the task of proselytism and the ad- 
ministration of church affairs in reality a pleasure rather than 
a burden ; an enlarged understanding, which perceived and 
overleaped the narrow boundaries of the Mosaic or orthodox 
Judaism ; a turn for ingenious disputation, which made the 
search for new meanings of the Scriptures a congenial employ- 
ment ; a vivid imagination, which was gratified by the ro- 
mance of the Messiah's advent ; and his Pharisaic belief of 
the resurrection of the dead; that all this unknown to 
himself, or unconsciously included by him in the operation of 
the Spirit, — assisted PauPs conversion to the rising branch 
the Essene sect. 

He nowhere states, however, that his conversion was owing 
to the strong evidence which the followers of Jesus were able 
to bring of their Master's miracles and appearance since his 

* See also Eph. i. 17 ; Gal. i. 16 ; ii. 2 ; 2 Cor. i. 21, 22 ; 1 Cor. ii. 10 
—15. 

f See also Rom. i. 2 ; xvi. 26. 

P 2 



212 OX THE RESURRECTION AND 






death ; for he says, that Peter, James, and John, who were the 
very persons to give snch information, added nothing to him. 
Gal. ii. 6, 9. There are no indications in his Epistles that he 
investigated the evidence of the alleged facts in a calm and ju- 
dicial manner, and that he made this investigation the founda- 
tion of his new faith. In this case the company of the eye- 
witnesses would have been most interesting to him; he would 
have diligently collected particulars from them, compared their 
different accounts, and eagerly sought any one who could bring 
to light additional circumstances. But he says, after speaking 
of his persecuting, " But when it pleased God to reveal his Son 
in me, that I might preach him among the heathen, immediately 
I conferred not with flesh and blood : neither went I up to Jeru- 
salem, to them which were apostles before me ; but I went 
unto Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. Then after 
three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode 
with him fifteen days. But other of the apostles saw I none, 
save James the Lord's brother. Now the things which I 
write unto you, behold, before God, I he not. Afterwards I 
came unto the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and was unknown 
by face unto the churches of Judea, which were in Christ : 
but they heard only that he, which persecuted us in times 
past, now preached the faith which once he destroyed. And 
they glorified God in me. Then, fourteen years after, I went 
up again to Jerusalem, with Barnabas, and took Titus with 
me also. And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto 
them that Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles .... But 
of those who seemed to be somewhat, (from verse 9, evidently 
Peter, James, and John,) they added nothing to me." Gal. 
i. ii. 

Thus the convert of the greatest talents and learning in the 
apostolic times, who had all facilities of access to the apostles, 
not only did not attribute his conversion to their testimony, 






ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 213 

but boasts that he hardly came into their company during the 
process. With what eagerness -would a modern inquirer seek 
Peter, and James the Lord's brother ! But Paul, three years 
after he had begun to entertain the subject, cared so little for 
the information which they were able to give, that he merely 
saw James, did not visit most of the apostles, and, as if to 
show that the fifteen days which he spent with Peter could 
not possibly have added much to him, he points out the dif- 
ferences which he had with that apostle, and frequently inti- 
mates that he himself ought not to be considered behind the 
chiefest of the apostles. 

He is so anxious to make it appear that his own doctrine 
was mainly original, and independent of the assistance of 
those followers and relations of Christ — those to whom Christ 
himself had given instructions how and what to preach — -that 
he says he communicated his Gospel to them.* We may 
therefore conclude, that in addition to the slight informa- 
tion which he might have obtained of Christ's history, whilst 
persecuting the church, (and it cannot be supposed that he 
then took much trouble to inquire into the matter,) he owed 
his conversion to his own reflections, to visions, and to his in- 
terpretation of the Scriptures. These sources are enough to 
account for the doctrines which he preached j the ideas that 
the Messiah had come in the person of Jesus, that he had 
been raised from the dead, and was soon to appear, having 
been rendered notorious by the preaching of the disciples, 
his own resources enabled Paul to complete the scheme on 
which he mainly insists in his writings, viz. that faith in this 
Messiah superseded the law of Moses, and permitted an union 
between Jews and Gentiles. 

* See also Rom. ii. 16; xvi. 25 ; 2 Cor. iv. 3; Gal. i. 11, 12. But I 
certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after 
man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the 
revelation of Jesus Christ. 2 Tim. ii. 8. 



214 ON THE RESURRECTION AND 

However often, then, Paul may assert that Christ was raised 
from the dead, and although we suppose that in all cases he 
meant to include the idea that he had appeared to his followers, 
the value of his belief depends on our estimation of the sources 
from which it proceeded. Now, whatever they were, they 
produced another belief in which he was evidently mistaken, 
viz. that Christ was soon to appear from heaven;* and the 
very consideration which would have placed his belief of the 
former doctrine in a different light, viz. that it depended on 
the evidence given to a past fact, he does not allow us to en- 
tertain. 

It is remarkable that the Pharisees, although hostile to 
Jesus in his lifetime, as a reformer and claimant of the 
throne of David, yet became more than quiescent, even 
favourably disposed towards his followers after his death.f 
Whence could this arise, but from the new doctrine which 
the disciples then began to spread, of the Messiah's resur- 
rection? This was such an interesting argument on the 
Pharisaic side of that great question of the day, the resur- 
rection of the dead, that, in proportion as it provoked the 

* This doctrine is urged by Paul with nearly as much force as that of 
the Messiah's resurrection, and often in conjunction with it : — 

1 Cor. i. 7, So that ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of 
the Lord Jesus Christ. Phil. iii. 20, For our conversation is in heaven, 
from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ ; — iv. 5, 
The Lord is at hand. 1 Thess. i. 9, 10, How ye turned to serve the living 
and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from 
the dead; — iii. 13, iv. 14 — 18, For if we believe that Jesus died and rose 
again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive 
and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are 
asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven . . . then we 
which are alive and remain, shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the 
air : and so shall we ever be with the Lord. "Wherefore, comfort one 
another with these words ; — v. 33 ; 2 Thess. i. 7, 8 ; 1 Tim. v. 14. 

f Gamaliel the Pharisee was their advocate. Excepting the case of Paul 
at Stephen's trial, there is no instance of persecution from the Pharisees in 
the Acts. They befriended Paul against the Sadducees, chap, xxiii. 



ASCENSION OP CHRIST. 215 

enmity of the Sadducees, it conciliated towards the disciples 
the good-will of their opponents. If it conld be urged with 
any plausibility, that the Messiah, the representative of the 
nation, had been raised from the dead, this was a new and 
decisive manner of settling the question ; which tendency of 
the doctrine was of itself an evidence on its behalf. And if 
a few passages from the Scriptures could be adapted to it, 
this would be, according to the method of reasoning then 
used by the Jewish sects, more pertinent evidence than the 
testimony of a crowd of eye-witnesses. All true sons of 
Israel were bound to consider the Scriptures as infallible, 
whether confirmed or not by the senses. If the disciples 
could but make it appear that they only said the things 
which Moses and the prophets wrote, their cause was gained, 
and further evidence rendered superfluous, in the eyes of 
many of the most devout Jews. 

Paul's manner of arguing is exactly such as might be ex- 
pected from a converted Pharisee under such circumstances. 
He speaks of the resurrection of the dead as a thing to be 
believed on its own grounds : " Why should it be thought a 
thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead V 
He labours to prove that the Messiah's resurrection is the 
fulfilment of prophecy. " I continue unto this day witness- 
ing both to small and great, saying none other things than 
those which the prophets and Moses did say should come : 
that Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that 
should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the 
people, and to the Gentiles." And only twice we find him 
alluding to the accounts delivered by the disciples. Acts 
xiii. 30;* 1 Cor. xv. 5—7. 

* I do not add here Acts xxvi. 26, " For this thing was not done in a 
corner," because it seems that by "this thing" Paul means the whole 
transactions relating to Jesus as commonly known to the Jews, and these 



216 ON THE RESURRECTION AND 

When he had occasion to allude to the personal history of 
Jesus, he must of necessity repeat what was said by his 
followers. On joining the church, he received what was 
currently believed in it concerning Jesus, and this included 
some stories of his appearance after death. But, from his 
manner of introducing these stories, it appears that he re- 
ceived them rather because they agreed with the doctrines 
which he and the church preached, than as the basis on 
which these doctrines themselves rested. 

1 Cor. xv. " Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the 
Gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have 
received, and wherein ye stand ; by which also ye are saved, 
if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye 
have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you, first of all, 
that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins 
according to the Scriptures : and that he was buried, and that 
he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures : and 
that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. After that, 
he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once ; of whom 
the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen 
asleep. After that, he was seen of James ; then of all the 
apostles. And, last of all, he was seen of me also, as of one 
born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, 
that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I perse- 
cuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am 
what I am : and his grace which was bestowed upon me was 



ended in his crucifixion. "The king "knoweth of these things." Paul 
could not intend to appeal to Agrippa's knowledge of the fact of Jesus's 
resurrection, when the whole church admitted that Jesus only appeared to 
his own disciples. To prove this point he has recourse to the prophets ; 
which accounts for the observation of Festus, to whom such a mode of 
argument would very likely seem extravagant ; but a Roman judge would 
hardly have called Paul mad for appealing to the evidence of credible 
witnesses. 



ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 217 

not in vain ; bnt I laboured more abundantly than they all : 
yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. There- 
fore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye 
believed." 

From this it appears, that one reason which induced Paul 
to believe the resurrection of Christ was his persuasion that 
it was according to the Scriptures. A second was the ap- 
pearance of Christ to himself, which could only have been in 
a vision, when, as he says, it pleased God to reveal his Son to 
him. A third reason was his already-formed Pharisaic belief 
in the resurrection of the dead. Thus prepared, he could 
not hesitate to receive also the stories of the appearances of 
Jesus to the other apostles. But it does not appear, even in 
this place, that his belief was founded on the evidence af- 
forded to him, that those appearances were real occurrences. 
His classing them with his own vision puts them even in a 
more doubtful light than that in which they appear elsewhere. 

It is to be observed, also, that there are no intimations in 
the Old Testament that the Messiah was to rise the third 
day. Since Paul, therefore, could take up this notion so 
lightly, he might have also adopted the stories of the ap- 
pearances to Cephas and the others on no better grounds.* 

From the little use which he makes of these appearances 
in what follows, it seems clear that his confidence in them 
was not that of a man who had fully investigated them, and 
become satisfied of their truth. 

Ver. 12 — 20, "Now if Christ be preached that he rose 
from the dead, how say some among you that there is no 
resurrection of the dead ? But if there be no resurrection 



* It is generally allowed that Paul is a fervid and imaginative, rather 
than a matter-of-fact writer. Even in the favourite argument from pro- 
phecy, his inaccuracy in quotation and interpretation equals almost that of 
Matthew. 



218 



ON THE RESURRECTION AND 



of the dead, then is Christ not risen : and if Christ be not 
risen, then is onr preaching vain, and yonr faith is also vain : 
yea, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we 
have testified of God that he raised up Christ; whom he 
raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the 
dead rise not, then is not Christ raised : and if Christ be not 
raised, your faith is vain ; ye are yet in your sins. Then they 
also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this 
life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most 
miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and 
become the first-fruits of them that slept." 

This is the language of a man whose attachment to the 
doctrine of the resurrection of the dead had contributed 
principally to his belief in that of Christ. Deny the former, 
and the latter falls. " If the dead rise not, then is not Christ 
risen." Or, supposing that Paul merely intends to represent 
the absurd consequence of his opponents' assertion, that 
which he arrives at is only this,— deny the resurrection of 
the dead, and you are obliged to deny also Christ's resur- 
rection ; you are thus at variance with an established doctrine 
of the church of which you are members, a doctrine which I 
preached, and which ye believed ; you make our preaching 
and your faith vain. That verse 20, " Now is Christ risen," 
only expresses a reference to the doctrine of the church, 
appears by comparing it with verse 12, "if Christ be preached 
that he rose from the dead." 

Very different would be the language of a man who had 
acquired by investigation a conviction of the reality of the 
appearances of Jesus. Such an one would say, Though there 
be no resurrection of the dead in general, yet Christ is risen ; 
for this is a notorious fact, resting on the indisputable testi- 
mony of Cephas, the apostles, and the five hundred, many 
of whom are ready now to attest it, and thus leave no shadow 



ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 219 

of doubt concerning it. He would confine himself to proving 
that a general resurrection must be inferred from that of 
Christ, and not go on to contemplate the consequences of an 
impossible case, viz. that Christ was not risen. To plead in 
favour of Christ's resurrection from the injurious conse- 
quences of denying it, instead of appealing to it as an incon- 
trovertible fact, is choosing the weaker line of argument; 
and as this is the only place in Paul's writings where he 
mentions the appearance of Jesus to the apostles, we are left 
to doubt whether he could have used the stronger.* 

Paul's mode of thinking seems to resemble exactly that of 
many Christians of later times. If the resurrection of the 
dead be denied, the first thought is, that this contradicts an 
essential doctrine of Christianity; "our faith then is vain; 
the apostles preached that Christ was raised, and so we have 
believed." They believe, no doubt sincerely, on this ground ; 
but, like Paul, not having thought it necessary to examine 
closely the evidence of the fact, they turn instinctively to 
other arguments. So Paul falls into an argument of natural 

* It is true that the words, "But now is Christ risen," would meet this 
objection, if they could be understood in the sense of an appeal to a well- 
known fact. But their force depends entirely upon this ; and the following 
reasons render it probable that they only appeal to a doctrine of the 
church ; in which case their sense is, " But now, we have preached, 
and ye have believed, that Christ is risen, and therefore you cannot now 
dispute it." 

Firstly. Verses 2, 11, 12, express this sense, and the phrase "but 
now" implies a return to the position with which the argument com- 
menced. 

Secondly. The words are the beginning of an elevated train of thought, 
which certainly does not appeal to facts, but either to the doctrines of the 
church, or to Paul's own revelations concerning the coming of the kingdom 
of God. 

Thirdly. An instance of similar reasoning occurs at verse 29, where 
Paul argues that there must be a resurrection of the dead, because other- 
wise baptism for the dead, an established rite of the church, would be in 
vain. " Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the 
dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead?" 



220 ON THE RESURRECTION AND 

reason common to all ages, in support of a resurrection, viz. 
the sufferings of good men, which he urges in a forcible and 
affecting manner, "If in this life only we have hope in 
Christ, we are of all men most miserable." 

As Paul himself did not believe the doctrine of Christ's 
resurrection from an investigation of the apostles' testimony, 
so neither did he require his hearers to believe it on this 
ground. They were to receive it as a matter of faith. As 
Abraham believed a thing improbable in itself, because it was 
necessary to fulfil the promises of God, so was the church re- 
quired to believe the resurrection of Christ, because, in Paul's 
scheme, it fulfilled the prophets. And this faith was to pro- 
ceed from hearing himself, to whom the doctrine had been 
revealed, and also from the operation of the Spirit upon 
themselves. See Rom. iv. 20 — 24; x. 8 — 17; 1 Cor. ii. 5, 
10 — 15 ; 2 Cor. v. 5 ; Eph. ii. 8. The modern Christian, 
who has been accustomed to believe the resurrection of 
Christ on the supposed strength of its evidence, is astonished 
to find throughout Paul's writings no passage recommending 
this as a basis for faith : on the contrary, the repeated ex- 
hortations to avoid the words of fleshly wisdom, and to seek 
the influences of the Spirit, seem to discourage such a mode 
of conversion. 

On the whole, Paul's testimony to the resurrection of 
Christ is of little weight, because he appears to have paid no 
attention to the question of the evidence, but to have believed 
on grounds which are not approved by the modern rational 
inquirer. 

III. The undisputed apostolic writings affording thus very 
little evidence as to the point in question, we are left to de- 
pend for particulars concerning the appearances of Jesus on 
writings of a later date and less certain authenticity, viz. the 
four Gospels, and some fragments of writings of less repute. 



ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 221 

Thus, if we except the Gospel of John, we have not, on this 
momentous point, the evidence of eye-witnesses, but merely 
second-hand and hearsay information. Let us collect to- 
gether in one view all the accounts remaining of the resur- 
rection of Jesus : — 

Matt, xxviii. " In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward 
the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to 
see the sepulchre. And behold there was a great earthquake ; for the 
angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the 
stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, 
and his raiment white as snow : and for fear of him the keepers did shake, 
and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the 
women, Fear not ye : for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. 
He is not here ; for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the 
Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the 
dead : and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee ; there shall ye see 
him ; lo, I have told you. And they departed quickly from the sepulchre 
with fear and great joy ; and did run to bring his disciples word. And as 
they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. 
And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him. Then said 
Jesus unto them, Be not afraid : go tell my brethren that they go into 
Galilee, and there shall they see me. Now when they were going, behold, 
some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all 
the things that were done. And when they were assembled with the elders, 
and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, saying, 
Say ye, His disciples came by night and stole him away while we slept. 
And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him and secure 
you. So they took the money, and did as they were taught ; and this say- 
ing is commonly reported among the Jews until this day. Then the eleven 
disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed 
them. And when they saw him they worshipped him : but some doubted. 
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me 
in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing 
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost : 
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you : 
and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." 

Mark xvi. " And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and 
Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they 
might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning, the first day 
of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. And 
they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the 



222 ON THE RESURRECTION AND 

door of the sepulchre ? And when they looked, they saw that the stone 
was rolled away ; for it was very great. And entering into the sepulchre, 
they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white 
garment; and they were affrighted. And he saith unto them, Be not 
affrighted : ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified : he is risen ; 
he is not here ; behold the place where they laid him. But go your way ; 
tell his disciples, and Peter, that he goeth before you into Galilee : there 
shall ye see him, as he said unto you. And they went out quickly, and fled 
from the sepulchre ; for they trembled and were amazed : neither said they 
any thing to any man ; for they were afraid." 

Ver. 9. " Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he 
appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. 
And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and 
wept. And they, when they heard that he was alive, and had been seen of 
her, believed not. After that he appeared in another form unto two of 
them, as they walked, and went into the country. And they went and told 
it unto the residue ; neither believed they them. Afterward he appeared 
unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief 
and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him 
after he was risen. And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and 
preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, 
shall be saved ; but he that believeth not, shall be damned. And these 
signs shall follow them that believe : In my name shall they cast out devils ; 
they shall speak with new tongues ; — they shall take up serpents ; and if 
they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them ; — they shall lay hands 
on the sick, and they shall recover. So then, after the Lord had spoken 
unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of 
God. And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working 
with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen." 

Luke xxiv. " Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the 
morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had 
prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled 
away from the sepulchre. And they entered in, and found not the body of 
the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass as they were much perplexed there- 
about, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments : And as they 
were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, 
Why seek ye the living among the dead ? He is not here, but is risen : 
remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, The 
Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be cruci- 
fied, and the third day rise again. And they remembered his words, and 
returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and 
to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother 
of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things 



ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 223 

unto the apostles. And their words seemed to them as idle tales, 
and they believed them not. Then arose Peter, and ran unto the 
sepulchre ; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by 
themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was 
come to pass. And behold, two of them went that same day to a village 
called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. 
And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it 
came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus 
himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that 
they should not know him. And he said unto them, What manner of com- 
munications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad ? 
And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering, said unto 
him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things 
which are come to pass there in these days ? And he said unto them, What 
things ? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was 
a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people : and 
how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to 
death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had been he which 
should have redeemed Israel : and besides all this, to-day is the third day 
since these things were done. Yea, and certain women also of our company 
made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre ; and when they 
found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of 
angels, which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were with 
us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said : but 
him they saw not. Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to 
believe all that the prophets have spoken \ ought not Christ to have 
suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at 
Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures 
the things concerning himself. And they drew nigh unto the village 
whither they went : and he made as though he would have gone further. 
But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us, for it is toward evening, 
and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. And it 
came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and 
brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him ; 
and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, Did not 
our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he 
opened to us the Scriptures ? And they rose up the same hour, and returned 
to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were 
with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. 
And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known 
of them in breaking of bread. And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood 
in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they 
were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. 



224 ON THE RESURRECTION AND 

And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled ? and why do thoughts arise 
in your hearts ? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle 
me, and see ; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. 
And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet. 
And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, 
Have ye here any meat ? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, 
and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them. And he 
said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was 
yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the 
law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me. 
Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the Scrip- 
tures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to 
suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day : And that repentance and 
remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, be- 
ginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And behold, 
I send the promise of my Father upon you ; but tarry ye in the city of 

Jerualem, until ye be endued with power from on high. And he led them 
out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. 
And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and 
carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jeru- 
salem with great joy; and were continually in the temple, praising and 
blessing God. Amen." 

Acts i. " The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that 
Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up, 
after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the 
apostles whom he had chosen : to whom also he shewed himself alive after 
his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and 
speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God : and being 
assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not 
depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith 
he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water ; but ye 
shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they 
therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou 
at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, 
It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath 
put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy 

Ghost is come upon you : and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jeru- 
salem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of 
the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he 
was taken up ; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while 
they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men 
stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why 
stand ye gazing up into heaven ? This same Jesus, which is taken up from 



ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 225 

you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into 
heaven." 

John xx. "The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, 
when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away 
from the sepulchre. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and 
to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have 
taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they 
have laid him, Peter therefore went forth and that other disciple, and 
came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together : and the other disciple 
did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And he stooping down, 
and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying ; yet went he not in. Then 
cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth 
the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that was about his head, not lying 
with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then 
went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he 
saw and believed. For as yet they knew not the Scripture, that he must 
rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their 
own home. But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping; and as she 
wept she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre, and seeth two angels 
in white sitting, the one at the head and the other at the feet, where the 
body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest 
thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and 
I know not where they have laid him. And when she had thus said, she 
turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was 
Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest 
thou ? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou 
have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take 
him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith 
unto him, Rabboni : which is to say, Master. Jesus saith unto her, Touch 
me not ; for I am not yet ascended to my Father ; but go to my brethren, 
and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my 
God, and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she 
had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her. Then 
the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors 
were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came 
Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 
And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. 
Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus 
to them again, Peace be unto you : as my Father hath sent me, even so 
send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith 
unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost : whose soever sins ye remit, they 
are remitted unto them ; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. 
But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when 

Q 



226 ON THE RESURRECTION AND 

Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen 
the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print 
of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my 
hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days again his 
disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the 
doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you, 
Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands ; 
and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side ; and be not faithless 
but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and 
my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me thou 
hast believed : blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. 
And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, 
which are not written in this book : but these are written, that ye might 
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God : and that believing ye 
might have life through his name." 

John xxi. " After these things, Jesus showed himself again unto the dis- 
ciples at the sea of Tiberias ; and on this wise showed he himself. There were 
together, Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of 
Cana in Galilee, and the Sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. 
Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also 
go with thee. They went forth and entered into a ship immediately ; and 
that night they caught nothing. But when the morning was now come, 
Jesus stood on the shore : but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. 
Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat ? They answered him, 
No. And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and 
ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for 
the multitude of fishes. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved, saith 
unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the 
Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him (for he was naked), and did cast 
himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little ship (for they 
were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits), dragging the net 
with fishes. As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals 
there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. Jesus saith unto them, Come and 
dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou ? knowing that 
it was the Lord. Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and 
fish likewise. This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his 
disciples, after that he was risen from the dead. So when they had dined, 
Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than 
these ? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He 
saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith unto him again the second time, 
Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me ? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou know- 
est that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him 
the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me ? Peter was grieved 



ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 227 

because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me ? And he said unto 
him, Lord, thou knowest all things ,• thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus 
saith unto him, Feed my sheep. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When 
thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest : 
but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another 
shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. This spake he 
signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken 
this, he saith unto him, Follow me. Then Peter, turning about, seeth that 
disciple whom Jesus loved following, which also leaned on his breast at 
supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee ? Peter, seeing 
him, saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do ? Jesus saith unto 
him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ? follow thou 
me. Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple 
should not die ; yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die ,* but, If I 
will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ? This is the disciple 
which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things ,• and we know that 
his testimony is true. And there are also many other things which Jesus 
did, the which if they should be written, every one, I suppose that even the 
world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen." 

Paul. 1 Cor. xv. 3 — 8. " For I delivered unto you first of all that which 
I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 
and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to 
the Scriptures : and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. After 
that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once ; of whom the 
greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After 
that he was seen of James ; then of all the apostles. And last of all he was 
seen of me also, as of one born out of due time." 

Gospel according to the Hebrews, quoted by Jerome : — " Very soon after 
the Lord was risen he went to James, and showed himself to him ; for James 
had solemnly sworn, that he would eat no bread from the time that he had 
drunk the cup of the Lord, till he should see him risen from among them 
that sleep." It is added a little after, " Bring, saith the Lord, a table and 
bread;" and lower, "He took bread and blessed, and brake it, and then 
gave it to James the Just, and said to him, My brother, eat thy bread. For 
the Son of Man is risen from among them that sleep." 

There are obviously many contradictions in these different 
accounts ; but the principal ones agree very nearly in this — 
that Mary Magdalene and other women went early to the 
sepulchre, and found that the body was gone ; upon which 
they returned to tell Peter and the other disciples ; that Peter 

Q2 



228 ON THE RESURRECTION AND 

and others went to the tomb and found that it was so ; after 
which there arose reports of Jesus having been seen in diffe- 
rent places. 

The non-appearance of the body after the Sabbath in the 
sepulchre where it had been deposited the night previous to 
that Sabbath, is one of those incidents which bears a very 
strong appearance of truth. For Jesus was certainly put to 
death ; — evidence direct and indirect concurs to prove that he 
was taken from the cross the same evening ; his body must 
have been deposited in some place, and the accounts before 
us, that this was in a tomb in a garden near at hand, are so 
far consistent and probable. That some of his followers, 
especially the women who had seen where he was laid, should 
seek the sepulchre after a short interval, is so probable, that 
the contrary would appear most apathetic negligence. Then — 
they must have found the body there, or not. Not the 
slightest hint has transpired, nor any circumstance indicating 
that the dead body of Jesus was found in the tomb : but all 
agree, and with narratives containing many natural circum- 
stances, that it was not there.* 

Consequently, — the body was taken away by some one in 
the interval between the Friday night and the Sunday 
morning, (unless we admit that it was miraculously resusci- 
tated, which will be considered soon) . But by whom it was 
taken away is not so clear. The question seems to lie between 
those who put it there, and the disciples. 

The report which we are told prevailed among the Jews 
forty years later, that the disciples had stolen away the body, 
agrees with the unanimous admission of the latter so far, that 
it was not found where it had been deposited. But we must 

* Especially the account in John xx. 1 — 10. The story following, of 
what happened to Mary Magdalene when alone, is distinct, and evidently 
not so much within the writer's means of knowledge. 



ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 229 

hesitate in admitting that Peter and the rest of the eleven 
were those disciples to whom the charge of the Jews should 
be attached. 

The subsequent conduct of these more immediate and 
attached followers of Jesus, their boldness and apparent 
sincerity in asserting publicly the resurrection and speedy 
re-appearance of Jesus, the style of earnestness in their 
writings (of which the first epistle of Peter is a striking 
instance), the large admixture of lofty enthusiasm which must 
have been present with men capable of attempts to proselyte 
the world, render it difficult to believe that they were guilty 
of so gross a deception. They have rather the air of men 
self-deluded than of contriving impostors. To exaggerate and 
somewhat embellish facts in subsequent narrations has been 
done by men to a great extent well-meaning and honest : but 
to contrive the removal and secret disposal of the body, with a 
view to publishing its resurrection, betokens a greater degree 
of fraud, and of a lower kind, than appears to agree with the 
characters of the apostles. And short of this it is not easy 
to see what motive they could have for exerting themselves 
so promptly to remove the body ; for it was already entombed 
in a decent manner by friendly hands, and a hurried secret 
removal could not add to the honours of sepulture. 

It would be too much, perhaps, to assert that it was im- 
possible for the apostles to execute such a purpose, if they 
had been inclined; for Matthew's unconfirmed story of the 
guard has every character of a subsequent legend, and neither 
was the garden entirely inaccessible, nor the stone immove- 
able by human efforts. Still some degree of privacy would 
appear to have attached to a garden and a sepulchre, to 
whomsoever they belonged ;* and the superintendence of the 

* Matthew alone says that the torn h was the property of Joseph, and he 
alone also gives him the title of " a rich man." It would be unsafe to rely 



230 ON THE RESURRECTION AND 

burial by members of the council would give to the first 
deposition of the body a degree of sanction, which it would 
imply some audacity, or at least a cogent motive, on the part 
of the apostles, immediately to disturb. There are no indica- 
tions of such an attempt on their part. They were taken by 
surprise by the apprehension of Jesus ; they endeavoured on 
the first impulse to save themselves by flight, or by mingling 
unobserved in the crowds ; the chief of them, Peter, had de- 
nied that he belonged to the company of Jesus ; they did not 
even accompany the body to the tomb,* fearing probably that 
this might point them out for capture. The interval of one 
day must have been very fully occupied in re-assembling, 
ascertaining what further danger there might be to them- 
selves, listening to reports, and resuming courage to fix upon 
some plan. 

On the other hand, Joseph of Arimathea, who was able to 
have the body placed in the tomb, was also very well able 
to have it removed. If the garden were his own, no one 
else indeed could do this with equal security. Any watch 
appointed by the Sanhedrim, (which part of Matthew's story 
however appears to be legendary,-)-) would probably have 

very confidently on the fact of Joseph"s proprietorship, because Matthew 
may have inserted these two particulars in order to produce an apparent 
conformity with Isaiah liii. 9. 

There were some common "burial places, called the '-graves of the sons 
of the people," Jer. xxvi. 23; but sepulchres in groves and gardens appear 
to have belonged to individuals. Jahn's Heb. Ant. §. 206. 

* The mention of the women as being those who saw where the body 
was laid is so distinct in all the four, that it seems to exclude the male 
disciples. 

f Matthew's story- of the guard bears these marks of fiction : Firstly, 
The Pharisees are made to say, " We remember that that deceiver said, 
while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again." From John 
xx. 9, it appears that Jesus had never said this, even to his own disciples. 
(See chap, xv.) Secondly, The anticipation of the Pharisees that the last 
error, i. e. the belief in the resurrection of Jesus, would be worse than the 
first, or the belief in his Messiahship, was too far-fetched for men in their 



ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 231 

obeyed rather than have resisted him. He had the co-opera- 
tion of another member of the council, Nicodemus. The 
complete silence of one who had more power than the disci- 
ples both to act and to speak, — the absence of his testimony 
when it might have been so useful one way or the other, — 
his retiring suddenly from a transaction in which he had 
begun to be conspicuous, — all this, in his case, is strongly 
significant. 

History loses sight of Joseph and Nicodemus exactly at 
the time when they ceased to have any open intercourse with 
the disciples, viz., when they had embalmed the body of 
Jesus, and allowed the women to see where it was laid. Thus 
they were the parties whom we last saw in charge of the 
body, and it is for them to give an account of it. But as, 
from that moment, they have shrunk from public notice, 
conjecture alone is able to follow up their examination, and 
to gain an insight into their counsels and doings on the 
evening of the day of the crucifixion, and the Sabbath which 
followed it. On the close of that eventful day they could not 
have been undisturbed or inactive, for a more perilous situa- 

circumstances. They were more likely to rest contented with having got 
rid of a supposed mover of sedition, than to act further upon what must 
then have appeared a very doubtful conjecture. If the idea had occurred 
to any of them, that the disciples would endeavour to spread the belief of 
their master's resurrection, they could hardly be so acute as to foresee that 
this would in time grow into a doctrine more important than that of his 
Messiahship. Thirdly, The representation of the Pharisees being admitted 
to be fictitious, the obtaining of the guard, which is said to have arisen 
from it, must be considered fictitious also. Fourthly, The writer of this 
Gospel endeavours to enhance the interest of the crucifixion by inserting 
many marvels resting on his own authority alone, such as the dream of 
Pilate's wife, two earthquakes, the rising of the saints, &c. Fifthly, He 
had an additional motive for inventing this story, viz. to answer an objection 
of opponents in his own time. Sixthly, This story is not alluded to by the 
other three evangelists, nor any where else in the New Testament ; although 
it would have formed a very important feature in all the accounts of the 
resurrection. 



232 ON THE RESURRECTION AND 

tion than theirs could hardly be conceived. They had been 
in secret communication with the Galilean who had just been 
executed for the treason of aiming at the throne of the Jews ; 
and the examination of his followers, or even an indiscreet word 
from them, might proclaim to the governor, or some hostile 
member of the Sanhedrim, that they too were his disciples. 
That which constituted the merit of Joseph in the eyes of the 
disciples, his having "himself waited for the kingdom of 
God," would implicate him in the crime of Jesus; for the 
crucifixion of the King was equivalent to denouncing the 
guilt of all who participated in seeking the kingdom. The 
fishermen of Galilee might be allowed to escape unnoticed; 
but a counsellor and a ruler could not be neglected, if the 
charge of treason were once directed against them. One of 
those tumults to which the Jewish populace were so prone 
might be excited by the friends of Jesus : this would stimulate 
the governor to a more rigid investigation of the affair, and 
to more sweeping executions. Or, supposing even that no 
such attempt were made, the continual resort of the disciples 
to the tomb in his possession, or under his superintendence, 
must draw attention to Joseph, and strengthen suspicion 
against him. The disciples must be dismissed ; but in what 
manner ? To forbid them access to the garden, or to renounce 
them harshly, might provoke the disclosures which he was 
anxious to avoid. 

The accounts before us supply the rest. The women came 
to the tomb early, and found that the body was gone. On a 
subsequent * visit they found a young man there, who, if he 
were not an angel, must have been some one employed by 
Joseph ; for who can suppose that he would have allowed an 
unauthorized person to be in this important charge at so 

* Compare Mark xvi. 5 with John xx. 12. 






ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 233 

critical a time ? This person told the women that Jesus was 
not there, and added directions to his disciples to go into 
Galilee ; of which message the version that has reached us is, 
that Jesus was risen and gone into Galilee, whither his disci- 
ples were to follow him.* 

Thus, if the accounts be disentangled from those contra- 
dictory miraculous additions which have every appearance of 
being the fictions of later times, the facts which remain, and 
a natural conjecture which links them together, offer an easy 
solution of the mystery. 

The question concerning the disposal of the body of Jesus 
does not appear to have excited much attention at the time ; 
for we nowhere learn that any search was instituted for it by 
the rest of the Jewish rulers ; which certainly they would 
have done if they had thought it worth while ; for it cannot 
be supposed that they believed that Jesus was actually risen 
on the mere report of some of the disciples. But there was, 
in fact, no reason for such a search ; they were satisfied with 
having put Jesus out of their way, since he appeared to be a 
political as well as a religious innovator ; and then they had 
more pressing matters to think of. The disciples did not 
appear to be men of dangerous characters ; and being deprived 
of their chief, might very well be left to think and say what 
they pleased concerning his body. A belief in its resurrection 
might very well be allowed them, provided they abstained 
from efforts to avenge him. Whereas the exhibition of the 
dead body would have exasperated them, and, perhaps, the 



* I have some hesitation in ascribing to Joseph the message in the terms 
in which we find it, both because it would imply more far-fetched artifice 
than the rest of the proceeding, and because these terms may merely reflect 
the subsequent belief of the church. But so far is agreed, that the body 
was gone ; it is highly probable that Joseph directed some one in his garden 
to tell the visitants that it was not there ; and not improbable that he en- 
deavoured to induce the disciples to return at once into Galilee. 



234 ON THE RESURRECTION AND 

multitudes with whom Jesus had been popular. The best 
policy was to let the affair die away. The formation of a 
new religious society by the few followers of Jesus was not 
important enough to occupy much of their attention, par- 
ticularly as, at first, they did not seem to differ much from 
the other Essenes ; and when, after thirty years, they had 
become numerous enough to make it worth while to disprove 
their assertion of the resurrection, it was not easy for any one 
to find the body, unless he had the assistance of Joseph or 
Nicodemus, which they were not likely to afford. The oppo- 
nents of the Christians were therefore obliged to say, that the 
disciples had stolen away the body; which indeed corre- 
sponds with the explanation given above as much as we could 
expect a popular report to do at the distance of forty years ; 
for both Joseph and Nicodemus were his disciples secretly, 
and had some connexion with the rest. 

But (to pursue this subject as far as we can with the help 
of mere conjecture, the only method of treating it now re- 
maining,) there might have been another important reason 
for the silence and apparent apathy of the Jewish rulers, 
respecting the body of Jesus immediately after the cruci- 
fixion. It is that others of them besides Nicodemus, perhaps 
all who had undertaken the task of watching the Galileans 
since the council in the house of Caiaphas, — possibly the most 
influential part of the Sanhedrim, — suggested or connived at 
the proceedings of Joseph, as both expedient for themselves, 
and friendly towards their deluded countrymen. The priests, 
the Sanhedrim, and the Pharisees generally, were not ma- 
lignantly hostile towards the followers of Jesus ; they were 
anxious doubtless, as in other cases of incipient disturbances, 
to save their more ignorant countrymen from the conse- 
quences of their own rashness ; for they well knew, although 
unable to make the populace fully comprehend, the strength 



ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 235 

of the iron hand upon them. They were unwilling to invoke 
the cruel remedy which Pilate had shown himself too ready 
to adopt in the cases of the images and of the aqueduct, the 
calling out of a Roman legion upon their countrymen. The 
sentiments of Joseph, Nicodemus, and of those Pharisees 
who had at first wished to avert the fate even of Jesus 
himself, (Luke xiii. 31,) may be supposed to have called forth 
fully in this case the more humane promptings of the Sanhe- 
drim. But not being able themselves to coerce, and doubtful 
of their ability to persuade the multitude, they were obliged 
to have recourse to manoeuvring. As they had manoeuvred 
to seize Jesus secretly in order to prevent tumult, so they 
were likely to adopt the same method in their proceedings 
after his apprehension. It is not likely that the vigilance so 
fully awakened fell asleep the instant Jesus expired. The 
people might not enter into their reasons for determining 
that Jesus must die for the sake of the nation, and it was 
desirable not to allow his body to continue to demand sym- 
pathy and revenge from the cross.* Joseph consequently 
sought leave to remove it the moment life could be supposed 
to be extinct. In the garden it was liable to be sought after. 
During the respite afforded by the Sabbath, it was removed 
again to some more hidden depository, whither the Galileans 
could not follow it. If these could be pacified, and above all 
induced to return speedily into their own province, the dis- 
affection would effectually be prevented from spreading. 

The lenity shown towards the disciples when it was ascer- 
tained that they made no further political attempts, — the 
indifference, or very slight molestation, with which the San- 
hedrim allowed them to preach the resurrection of Jesus for 

* The motive given in John xix. 31, viz. the approach pf the Sabbath, 
was certainly sufficient to urge, in this case, conformity to the Jewish law, 
Deut. xxi. 23, although it does not exclude others. 



236 ON THE RESURRECTION AND 

a considerable time, until it became associated with other 
unforeseen obnoxious doctrines, — the omission of any of the 
rulers, as far as we can learn, to demand the production of 
the body, — harmonize with these conjectures. But to what- 
ever extent we incline to think that Joseph and Nicodemus 
had the co-operation of others of their brethren, the impe- 
netrable obscurity in which the point must remain, evidently 
arises from this, that those who knew the most have said the 
least. If the Arimathean had been equally communicative 
with his namesake the son of Matthias, much bewilderment 
of the human intellect might have been spared, and the faith 
of the Christian church either suppressed at its birth, or 
invigorated by more heavy demands. But he and his com- 
peers were probably little aware of the importance which 
would one day attach to their testimony ; or if they had been 
so, might have been equally disinclined to furnish it at the 
expense of personal ease and security. 

This then seems to be the whole result we can arrive at. 
The Roman authorities had the power to remove the body 
secretly, but had no motive. For the disciples, the attempt 
must have been hazardous, although not clearly imprac- 
ticable ; but a motive for it is not obvious, and it does not 
agree with their conduct. Joseph, Nicodemus, and not im- 
probably other members of the council, had the power ; and 
motives in their case are obvious. 

IV. Let us return to consider the disciples' own accounts, 
or rather those which have come to us as the disciples' ac- 
counts ; from Paul, Mark, Luke, from a writer said by Papias 
to be Matthew, and from the Ephesian church professing to 
give the words of John. These state that the body of Jesus 
became alive again. At least, one well-substantiated account 
of its actual appearance is necessary to establish such an im- 
portant point. 









ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 237 

Mark, it is said, obtained information from Peter ; and 
therefore it is in Mark chiefly that we should look to find the 
important testimony of the chief apostle. Now, it is plain 
that the last twelve verses of Mark have been added to what 
was written at first,* either by a different hand, or by the 
same hand at a different time; and the original narrative, 
which has been replaced or continued by another at the 
ninth verse, mentions no appearance of Jesus, nor any thing in 
itself miraculous, after the burial of Jesus. 

The first who is said to have seen Jesus is Mary Mag- 
dalene. But from the original part of Mark, and from 
Luke, it does not appear that she said so herself. Her first 



* Jerome said the latter part of Mark, from ver. 9 — 16, was generally 
wanting in the Greek copies, " omnibus Graeciae libris pene hoc capitulum 
in fine non habentibus." — Ad Hedib. Qu. iii. t. iv. 

Gregory Nyssen, A.D. 371, said that "in the most exact copies, St. 
Mark's Gospel concluded with the words, chap. xvi. 8, For they were 
afraid." — In Chr. Res. or ii. t. 3. 

Irenseus, it is true, quotes ver. 19, " In fine autem evangelii ait Marcus : 
Et quidem Dominus, &c. ;" but this is not equivalent to his deliberate 
opinion that it was genuine. 

Eusebius not only says that the most accurate copies of Mark (afterwards 
he says nearly all) had the end written after the words " they were afraid;" 
but explains the manner in which probably the supplement came to be so 
generally inserted, (ad Marin, qu. i.) 

In some copies there was this addition after the words " they were 
afraid:" "And they told briefly all the things which they were commanded 
to Peter and those with him, and after that, Jesus himself sent forth through 
them, from the east to the west, the holy and incorruptible word of eternal 
salvation." But Rosenmuller says, "This addition appears to have been 
made for the sake of filling up the chasm which was now found in many 
copies. Since it is not at all probable that Mark ended his book with a 
fragment at the words 'they were afraid,' we must conjecture that the 
genuine ending of the Gospel was lost ; and that it was completed at the 
end of the first or the beginning of the second century by some unknown 
person." — Scholia in Marc. Credner calls this a second early attempt to 
complete Mark's Gospel. Einl. § 49. The same writer says respecting the 
present conclusion of Mark, ver. 9 — 16, " In few cases does the result of 
criticism take such a sure and firm stand as here ; the conclusion cannot be 
from the same author as the rest." 



238 ON THE RESURRECTION AND 

report was only, according to John, that the body was taken 
away ; according to Luke, that she had seen some persons at 
the tomb who told her he was risen. Matthew says for her, 
that Jesus met her and the other Mary on their first return 
from the tomb, and told them that he would meet the dis- 
ciples in Galilee; the very message, which, according to 
Luke, she said had been given by the angel or angels at the 
tomb. This implies clearly an error in Matthew ; for who 
can believe that she would have contented herself with de- 
livering this message of the angel, if she had already, as 
Matthew says, seen Jesus himself ? Moreover, Luke confirms 
his statement at ver. 23, that the women said only that they 
had seen a vision of angels, and not Jesus himself. This is 
enough to convict Matthew of incorrectness; and he, not 
Mary Magdalene, is responsible for this story of Jesus' s first 
appearance. 

John however says, that Mary came again to the sepulchre, 
saw the two angels there, and then turning round saw some 
one whom she believed at first to be the gardener, but after- 
wards Jesus himself. The particulars of this appearance 
differ much from that in Matthew ; and there is again strong 
reason for doubting whether she gave the account herself: 
for the seeing of the two angels identifies this visit with the 
one related by Luke, according to whom, on returning from 
this visit, she did not say that she had seen Jesus. So that 
if we prefer the original part of Mark, and Luke, to Mat- 
thew, John, and the supplement to Mark, there is no evidence 
that Mary herself said that she had seen Jesus. 

But supposing that Matthew and John have each only 
mistaken the occasion, and that, at one time or other, she 
did say this, — how far is she to be believed ? The disciples 
considered her words idle tales, and believed them not. Luke 
xxiv. 11 ; Mark xvi. 11. We have thus their example for 



ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 239 

considering her testimony alone as insufficient, and for seeking 
further evidence. 

Luke says, that he appeared the same day to Cleopas and 
another disciple, whose eyes at first were holden that they 
did not know him. This is repeated in the supplement to 
Mark, which says that he appeared in another form to two of 
the disciples as they went into the country ; but it is added, 
that the other disciples did not believe them. According to 
Luke, so far from objecting to the account as incredible, the 
other disciples gave a similar one themselves » The doctrine 
sought to be conveyed by the story appears to be, that Christ 
suffered in order to fulfil the prophecies ; and as this doctrine 
became a favourite one in the church, Luke judged the story 
a proper one to be inserted in his collection. Although this 
view of Christ's death is frequently dwelt upon in the Acts 
and Epistles, the story of the two disciples is never alluded 
to. Yet if Christ had appeared to expound the prophecies 
concerning himself, one would not have expected to find his 
exposition quite forgotten in the church, but rather that it 
would have been preserved as a precious text-book. But it 
will be shown that there are no prophecies which can reason- 
ably be interpreted concerning the sufferings of Jesus ; and 
in this case the story becomes evidently fabulous. 

The phrase in Mark, " he appeared in another form," shows 
that the idea prevailed that Jesus assumed different forms 
after his resurrection. Consequently any stranger whom the 
disciples remembered to have seen about that time might 
be supposed to be Jesus; and thus a foundation might be 
laid for many legends like those of Cleopas and Mary 
Magdalene. 

Luke says, that the same day the eleven told Cleopas and 
his companion that " the Lord had appeared to Simon," 
which had been said before by Paul: "He was seen of 



240 ON THE RESURRECTION AND 

Cephas " The same story probably gave rise to both asser- 
tions ; for both Luke and Paul could only state what they 
had heard from others. We have nowhere any particulars of 
this appearance to Simon Peter ; nor can we discover that he 
himself ever said that he had seen Jesus. When he went to 
examine the tomb, after receiving the report of Mary Mag- 
dalene, he only found that the body was gone, and went 
away wondering. Luke xxiv. 12 ; John xx. 6. 

The same day, at evening, according to John and Luke, 
Jesus appeared to all the apostles at Jerusalem, Luke xxiv. 
33, John xx. 19, which does not disagree with the supplement 
to Mark, and Paul, but contradicts Matthew, who makes the 
eleven depart into Galilee to see him. 

The story, in Luke, of Jesus's eating the fish, and showing 
his hands and feet, seems to have originated in a wish to 
controvert the early and original doctrine, that he was risen 
only in a spiritual or invisible manner. According to Jerome, 
there was a similar story in the Gospel according to the He- 
brews. Whether the author of this Gospel copied from 
Luke, or Luke from him, is not clear ; but a shade of proba- 
bility in favour of the latter supposition arises from this, that 
Ignatius says, Smyrn. i. 9, " But I know that even after his 
resurrection he was in the flesh ; and I believe that he is still 
so. And when he came to those who were with Peter, he 
said unto them, Take, handle me, and see that I am not an 
incorporeal daemon. And straightway they felt him, and 
believed ; being convinced both by his flesh and spirit. For 
this cause they despised death, and were found to be above 
it. But after his resurrection he did eat and drink with 
them, as he was flesh; although as to his spirit, he was 
united to the Father." Which story of Ignatius agrees very 
well with that in Luke ; but Jerome says that Ignatius took 
it from the Gospel according to the Hebrews ; which indi- 









ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 241 

cates that in Jerome's time that Gospel was considered as its 
proper and original source.* 

John alone relates that, eight days afterwards, Jesus ap- 
peared again to the disciples at Jerusalem, and held the 
discourse with Thomas, who calls him, " My Lord and my 
God." This latter title betrays the fiction -, since the term 
God was not applied to Jesus until the doctrine of the incar- 
nation of the logos had been established, or near the end of 
the first century.f 

* Ignatius had been asserting with some vehemence that Jesus Christ 
suffered upon the cross really, or in the flesh, apparently in opposition to 
the Cerinthian heresy, that the divine soul or Christ left the body of Jesus 
to suffer in appearance only. To make his point still stronger, he says that 
he knows that even after his resurrection he was still in the flesh. 

The distinction between what Jesus did or suffered in the flesh, i. e. by means 
of material organs like other men, and what he did or suffered in the spirit, 
i. e. by secret and invisible operation like that attributed to the Deity, was 
much debated towards the end of the first century. It is frequently as- 
serted that he was born of the race of David according to the flesh, and 
crucified in the flesh. It was natural to ask, was he raised from the dead 
in the flesh also ? The first Epistle of Peter, we have seen, appears to 
decide this in the negative, " he was crucified in the flesh, but made alive 
in the spirit." But the writers of the third and fourth Gospels take the 
opposite view, and the minuteness and clearness with which they urge that 
he ate and drank and was handled, are probably to be regarded as their 
declarations of the extent to which they intended to carry the doctrine. 

The Cerinthian heresy, that the Christ or divine soul of the Saviour had 
a separate existence from the human being Jesus, and left him at the cru- 
cifixion, would give peculiar interest to all legends asserting his corporeal 
nature after his resurrection, and might occasion some of them. 

The manner in which Ignatius introduces his last point, "but I know 
that even after his resurrection he was in the flesh," implies that this was 
not universally known like the two former. 

f The reader is referred to the works of the Unitarians for the arguments 
that the application of the term " God" to Christ, in the writings of Paul, 
is doubtful, or that the text has been corrupted. But the genuineness of 
the text in John has never been questioned ; and the Fathers generally 
maintained that he taught the divinity of Christ. See Priestley's Early 
Opin., ch. vii. Christ is called God frequently in the epistles of Ignatius, 
A.D. 107. Smijmceans i. 2; hi. 11. Romans i. 1, 13; ii. 16. Eph. i. 1 ; 
ii. 7. 

The words of Pliny about A.D. 102, " Christo quasi deo," show that the 






242 ON THE RESURRECTION AND 

Matthew alone relates that Jesus appeared to the eleven 
on a mountain in Galilee ; but, that some doubted. If some 
of those who were actually at the mountain doubted whether 
they saw Jesus or not, we may reasonably doubt whether he 
was to be seen at all there ; especially as the words attributed 
to him do not seem at all likely to have been said, from the 
disciples paying no attention to them. For, in the Acts and 
Epistles, they never baptize in the name of the Father, and 
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. If Paul knew of this 
story, and believed it, he would hardly have spoken so slight- 
ingly of baptism : " I thank God that I baptized none of you 
but Crispus and Gaius." It seems not unlikely that some of 
the disciples returned to Galilee, expecting to see Jesus 
there; that subsequently some of them asserted that they 
had seen him there, which the others denied; that, conse- 
quently, the story was not generally credited, and that this 
phrase "some doubted," merely reflects the incredulity of 
some in the church respecting it. Mark, although he relates 
the command to go into Galilee, does not add any narrative 
of an appearance there : and was thus either ignorant of it, 
or neglected it ; unless we suppose that the part replaced by 
another hand contained it. 

John (or the person calling himself " we," who writes for 
him,) says that Jesus showed himself again to the disciples 
at the sea of Tiberias, and gives an account of a miraculous 
draft of fishes much like that described by Luke at the first 
calling of Peter at the same sea ; of Jesus eating broiled fish, 
which resembles Luke's account of the same thing at Jeru- 



Christians had then been for some time accustomed to address Christ in 
this manner. Jesus, in the legend, receives the title as a proper confession 
of faith. But its variance with the parent creed was still perceived, and 
consequently the Jews had been represented as remonstrating against Jesus 
as making himself equal with God. 



ASCENSION OP CHRIST. 243 

salem ; and of prophecies concerning the death of Peter and 
the long life of John, which are not alluded to in the Acts or 
any of the Epistles, except the second, or spurious, Epistle of 
Peter. If things so interesting to Peter had really taken 
place, it is singular not only that Mark, the follower of 
Peter, should omit them, but that the person completing his 
Gospel should give an account which does not admit of their 
being true; for he represents the ascension as happening 
immediately after Jesus had spoken to the disciples at Jeru- 
salem. But the resemblances noticed authorize the con- 
jecture that the whole chapter is grounded upon the above 
stories of Luke, with such embellishments as had grown up 
by the year 97. 

Paul says, that after Jesus had been seen by Peter and the 
twelve, (query, eleven ? for Matthias was not yet chosen,) he 
was seen of above five hundred brethren at once ; but he does 
not say clearly when : and it is impossible to discover when 
it could be ; for John alone mentions a second appearance to 
the general body of the disciples, viz. when Thomas was with 
them. The meeting in a place with closed doors, and the 
promise of the power to remit sins, given to the same com- 
pany, imply that the writer did not intend to speak of so 
numerous an assembly as five hundred. But twenty or thirty 
years afterwards some might be ready to say, that five hun- 
dred had seen him. The speeches in the Acts only assert 
that Jesus was shown to " chosen witnesses," (x. 41, xiii. 30,) 
which surely could not mean so many as five hundred. This 
story is important, because it assists us to estimate the weight 
due to Paul's testimony. Now, since it is impossible to 
believe that so important an appearance could have been 
omitted by all those who wrote professedly on the subject, if 
they believed it, it follows that Paul adopted a story which 
they disbelieved or neglected, and consequently that he was 

r2 



244 ON THE RESURRECTION AND 

far from rigid in investigating the historical basis to the 
accounts of the re-appearance of Jesus. This is confirmed 
by Paul's citing an appearance to James, which none of the 
Evangelists have noticed, but which is found in a fragment 
of the Gospel according to the Hebrews. 

In his Gospel, Luke represents Jesus as ascending on the 
same day that he first appeared to the eleven; but in the 
Acts, written probably at some distance of time, he says that 
Jesus was seen by the disciples, and spoke to them during 
forty days;* which agrees very ill with all the preceding 
accounts, in which Jesus is represented as appearing and 
vanishing suddenly, in different forms, different parts of the 
country, and only at intervals. 

V. It was undoubtedly very easy to invent stories like 
these during the sixty years between the death of Jesus and 
the writing of the last Gospel; and there can be as little 
doubt that the disposition of the church in general was such 
as to encourage the invention. 

Peter and the other apostles believed their master to be 
the Messiah, and that he would become miraculously king of 
Israel ; they were disappointed and perplexed by his death ; 
but, still believing in his divine mission, and finding his body 
gone, they received readily the idea that he was risen, and 
would soon re-appear to fulfil his promises. Traces appear 
in these very stories that the belief in the resurrection was 
not owing to an actual appearance. f Such a belief was not 
unnatural to men in their circumstances, whose religion con- 
tained histories of several persons taken from the earth 

* The number of the days of his temptation, and of Moses' sojourn in 
the mount. 

f John believed that he was risen instantly on finding the tomb empty. 
"Then went in also that other disciple which came first to the sepulchre, 
and he saw and believed." John xx. 8. Peter was more slow. Luke 
xxiv. 12. 









ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 245 

miraculously,* and especially when they began to find or 
fancy a correspondence between their master's sufferings and 
the prophecies. Once thoroughly possessed with the belief 
that Jesus was the Messiah, the king of Israel, they could 
find no solution of the mystery of his death but in the idea 
that he was soon to return to claim his kingdom : " Ought 
not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his 
glory V Consequently, the reports which soon arose amongst 
the more ignorant and eager of their followers, that Jesus 
had been actually seen in different places, were not only a 
pleasing relief to their distress for his sudden loss, but agreed 
with the view which now seemed to disclose itself, of the 
divine plans concerning him. They might not unnaturally 
believe some of these stories to be true. Most men are not 
very rigid in their examination of a belief which agrees well 
with their interests and feelings : and men of more profound 
scientific knowledge than any Jews possessed at that time, 
have wavered on the subject of the re-appearance of the 
dead. The apostles did not at first believe them which said 
they had seen Jesus; but the influence of these tales, so 
pleasing to their own minds, and so powerful in promoting 
the faith of the church, afterwards led them, perhaps sin- 
cerely, to blame their own incredulity as hardness of heart. 

Nevertheless it may be said, that the tales of the re- 
appearance of Jesus, if really false, could not have obtained 
a general reception without considerable opposition; and that 
traces of this opposition would be found. They are found in 
the tone adopted towards the unbelievers; for this shows that 

* It may deserve attention as a conjecture, that the words, " For I am 
not yet ascended," John xx. 17, refer to an early impression of some of the 
disciples, that Jesus, on being raised, ascended immediately to heaven. As, 
however, the stories of Jesus' appearance on the earth multiplied, the 
ascension was postponed ; and when Luke wrote the Acts, it was placed 
forty days after the resurrection. 



246 ON THE RESURRECTION AND 

the objections of such were neither unfrequent nor unimpor- 
tant : " He upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness 
of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him 
after he was risen." Mark xvi. 14. " Because thou hast seen 
me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen 
me, and yet have believed." John xx. 29. "But some 
doubted." Matt, xxviii. 17. " He that believeth not, shall 
be damned." Mark xvi. 16. The ascription of such sayings 
as these to Jesus, shows that the difficulty of overcoming the 
disbelief of many in the church was by no means insigni- 
ficant. Thus at the very time, the very hour when Jesus was 
said to have appeared again, scepticism seems to have been 
as prevalent as it is at the present day, and among the first 
disciples themselves. While the repeated recurrence to spi- 
ritual menace on this point by the writers of the early church, 
joined to the confused manner in which they give their own 
accounts of the resurrection, lead us to think that they 
found difficulty in overcoming the scepticism by an appeal to 
the testimony then existing. 

YI. Upon the whole, the accounts of the appearances of 
Jesus after his death are incredible ; because, 

Firstly, Not one of them comes down to us attested in 
such a manner as would be commonly thought sufficient to 
establish a fact of importance. With the exception of John, 
(for a faithful report of whose testimony we depend on the 
integrity of the Ephesian church), not one of the supposed 
eye-witnesses gives direct evidence. Matthew says that Mary 
Magdalene saw Jesus ; Paul says the same for Peter ; Luke 
says that he appeared to Cleopas ; the author of the Gospel 
according to the Hebrews speaks for James ; and in each case 
the probability is that the account had passed through many 
intermediate narrators. The accounts individually are insuf- 
ficient evidence ; nor can they together make up a cumula- 



ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 247 

tive proof, because they proceed from witnesses only nominally 
independent, but in reality influenced by the same views and 
feelings. 

Secondly, These accounts present irreconcilable contradic- 
tions. 

Thirdly, They resemble very much other tales of apparitions 
in the sudden coming and vanishing of Jesus. 

Fourthly, It has been very common in the Jewish and 
Christian, as well as other churches, for those who wished to 
enforce a particular precept or doctrine to say that some emi- 
ment prophet, angel, or saint, had appeared to reveal it to 
them. Jesus appears to the two disciples, to tell them that he 
suffered in fulfilment of the prophecies ; to the eleven in Gali- 
lee, in order to give them the baptismal commission to all na- 
tions ; to the disciples at Jerusalem, to give them the power of 
remitting or retaining sins ; and to Thomas, to proclaim the ne- 
cessity of believing in his resurrection without having seen him. 

Fifthly, There were many who disbelieved these accounts 
in the earliest times. 

Sixthly, Most of the attestations of the resurrection of 
Jesus in the apostolic writings do not of necessity apply to 
these accounts of his appearance, but to the general doctrine 
that he was risen, which might be in an invisible or spiritual 
manner. And those which bear a further sense seem to al- 
lude to stories of visions. 

VII. The ascension of Jesus into heaven is related only by 
Luke, and by the author of the last twelve verses of Mark.* 
It is alluded to John xx. 17, but no account is given of it. 
That in the appendix to Mark is given in a careless manner 
in one verse, and places the transaction immediately after the 

* It is remarkable that, if these twelve verses be omitted, as we have seen 
was generally done in the early copies, Mark, the follower of Peter, relates 
neither the miraculous birth, the resurrection, nor the ascension of Christ. 



248 ON THE RESURRECTION AND 

first appearance to the eleven at Jerusalem. Luke in the 
Gospel seems to agree with this as to the time : but in the 
Acts, where he is more circumstantial, he says it took place 
forty days afterwards. A more striking event could hardly 
be imagined than the ascent of Jesus in the presence of his 
disciples ; yet one of the Evangelists says not a word concern- 
ing it; another, supposed to havebeen one of the witnesses, stops 
short when he approaches it ; and only those two of the four 
who are allowed not to have been eye-witnesses (and only one 
of these, if Mark did not write the last twelve verses) give 
any account of it. The belief that Jesus must have ascended 
into heaven like Enoch and Elijah was likely to give rise to 
some dramatic descriptions of the event, as of a real scene ; 
and one highly-coloured representation has been preserved or 
drawn by Luke. 

The ancient Jewish prophets, like many eastern writers, 
were accustomed to mix facts, visions, and allegories, in the 
same narrative, without marking clearly where one sort of 
writing ends and another begins;* and this vivid manner of 
writing was imitated by their readers and admirers, the early 
Christians. Looking at the matter in this way, the stories of 
the temptation, the preaching to the spirits in prison, the ap- 
pearances of Jesus after his death, and the ascension, are 
pleasing romances. But in considering them as matters of 
fact, we become as much embarrassed as if we were to endea- 
vour to explain in the same way the books of Ezekiel, Daniel, 
and the Revelations. 



The most beautiful fictions are those which bring to view 
the forms of departed friends ; for in these the colours of the 



* The passage of the Lord before Moses (Exod. xxxiv. 6) is related as 
much in the style of facts as the rising up of Moses early in the morning, 
verse 4. 









ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 249 

imagination are both deepened and softened by the more 
refined feelings, friendship, esteem, and sorrow. The sudden 
loss of such a leader as Jesus must have left a strong impres- 
sion on any minds ; much more on those of fishermen and 
peasants of an eastern country, who believed him to be the 
Messiah. The romantic hopes which he had excited, the 
sublime views to which he had raised their minds, and the 
feelings of veneration and attachment to himself which he 
had awakened, could not at once subside. All these power- 
ful sources of action found a vent in the continuance of his 
plans, in the institution of memorials of him, in heightening 
and colouring to other hearers the incidents of his life, and 
in cultivating the delightful illusions of his resurrection, per- 
petual presence, and future re-appearance. Fictions proceed- 
ing from such feelings, and also connected, as they were in 
the case of the disciples, with the real interests of life, must 
be of a different character from those thrown out in the mere 
wantonness of imagination. Hence the appearance of sim- 
plicity, earnestness, and reality, which in the midst of 
palpable inconsistencies, pervade the evangelic histories, and 
render even their fictions unique. Hence also the reason of 
the superiority of the evangelic style to most of the similar 
fictions in the apocryphal books ; for as these were written at 
later times, the immediate impressions produced by the 
advent of Jesus had become much weakened. In short, in 
the stories of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus we see 
traces of the sentiments awakened in some inhabitants of an 
eastern and imaginative clime, at an eventful period of their 
country's history, by the life, precepts, and sudden death, of 
one of the most extraordinary persons in history. 

It is undoubtedly more gratifying to enter into the feelings 
of the disciples, and transporting ourselves in imagination to 
Jerusalem, Bethany, and the Mount of Olives, now become 



250 OX THE RESURRECTION, ETC. 

desolate by the absence of their master, whose conversation 
and undertaking had formerly rendered every hill and village 
a place of interest — to listen with anxiety to the reports of 
those who say he is risen ; to allow our wishes to overcome 
distrust ; to imagine that the risen Messiah is still walking 
the earth, secure in his immortal state from further attempts 
of his enemies ; to expect him at times to throw aside his in- 
visible veil, and to look for him on the mountain, high road, 
and lake ; to believe that his now divine nature enables him 
to assume different forms at pleasure, and to convert each 
dimly-seen or indistinctly-remembered shape into Jesus ; 
and when he seems finally to have left the earth, to see him 
ascending to the right hand of God, there to wait the ap- 
pointed time for revealing his kingdom. But imagination 
and feeling are unsafe guides in an inquiry into facts. The 
real occurrence is often found to bear no proportion in 
grandeur to the shape which it has assumed in contempla- 
tion. And in the circumstances attending the death of 
Jesus, we are forced to see a striking instance of the tendency 
of the mind to invest ordinary events with a higher beauty 
and interest than unimpassioned observation alone could 
discover, and to give to the common places of the world an 
impress of that higher life and perfection toward which it 
seems borne by its own nature. The disappearance of the 
body of the crucified Nazarene loses the mysterious grandeur 
which its connexion with themes most interesting to man- 
kind had drawn around it, and shrinks into a comparatively 
poor and trifling incident when we approach for close inspec- 
tion : but the sublime views which it was in part the occa- 
sion of bringing forth, and the moral revolution which it 
contributed to promote, are in themselves deeply-interesting 
facts, which have an important bearing on every inquiry 
concerning the ultimate destination of the human mind. 



( 251 ) 



CHAPTER VIII. 

REMARKS ON THE OTHER MIRACLES IN THE FOUR 
GOSPELS. 

In common life marvellous tales are often met with, which, 
on taking the trouble to trace them back through various 
stages to their source, we find to have originated in something 
perfectly intelligible and natural. And when we have done 
this in some instances, we conclude that the same result 
would follow in the case of similar tales, coming to us through 
the same channels, although in this latter case we might not 
have the means of following up such a tedious investigation. 

For instance, — Irenseus says, " There were some who had 
heard Polycarp relate, how St. John, going one day to the 
bath in Ephesus, and finding the heretic Cerinthus in it, 
started back instantly without bathing, crying out, Let us 
run away, lest the bath should fall upon us, while Cerinthus, 
the enemy of truth, is in it." — Iren. 1. iii. c. 3. Epiphanius 
tells the same story of Ebion, and adds, that " St. John had 
never before made use of the public baths, till he was sent 
thither on this occasion by divine inspiration, to give this 
open testimony of his detestation of heresy." Feuardentius, 
in his notes on this passage of Irenseus, says that Jerome, in 
his treatise against the Luciferians, affirms that " immediately 
after the retreat of St. John, the bath actually fell down, and 
crushed Cerinthus to death." An ordinary event is thus 
grown into a miracle of some magnitude. 

There is no reason why we should not apply the same 
mode of investigation to the narratives of the writers in the 
century before Irenseus, viz. those of the New Testament. 



252 REMARKS ON THE OTHER MIRACLES 

Draught of In Matthew, ch. iv., and Mark i., there is an 

fishes. 

account of Jesus calling Peter to follow him, 

whilst he was fishing at the sea of Galilee. Luke relates the 

same occurrence, adding a miraculous draught of fishes, ch. v. 

John adds a miraculous fire of coals to broil the fish, and a 

prophecy of Peter's death ; and makes the whole take place 

after the resurrection of Jesus, xxi.* 

Here, again, we see the very natural progress of a story 

during sixty-four years, from a simple occurrence into a 

cluster of miracles. And it gives us reason to think that 

other accounts of miracles would also be easily explicable if 

we had the means of stopping them at each stage. 

Descent of Matthew and Mark relate that Jesus was bap- 
the spirit. 

tized by John the Baptist, and that he saw the 

spirit descending upon himself like a dove. Luke says that 

the spirit did descend in a bodily shape, like a dove. John 

adds, that this descent of the spirit had been foretold to John 

the Baptist. By the time of Justin, there was also a fire 

kindled in the Jordan. Dial, with Trypho. 

Marriage John alone gives the story of the marriage feast, 

feast at Cana. 

where the water was turned into wine. The in- 
ternal evidence becomes therefore of the more importance. 

* That all the accounts are hased upon the same incident is inferred from 
the following resemblances : — 

The scene was at the sea of Galilee or Tiberias : . in all four. 

Peter, James, and John, were amongst those 

present ........ id. 

They were fishing id. 

Jesus gives the command to Peter, Follow me . Matt., Mark, and John. 
Jesus promises Peter that he shall be a fisher of 

men Matt., Mark, and Luke. 

The fishermen forsake all and follow him . . id. 

When Jesus first met them they had caught 

nothing ........ Luke and John. 

Jesus commands to cast the net .... id. 

A great multitude of fishes are taken ... id. 



IN THE FOUR GOSPELS. 253 

" When they wanted wine, the mother of Jesns saith unto 
him, They have no wine." There is no reason why Jesus 
should be applied to for wine, which it was the duty of the 
host to furnish ; but however unnatural the application in 
reality, it was quite natural on the part of the writer, who has 
to prepare the way for the event. Jesus replies, " Woman, 
what hast thou to do with me ? mine hour is not yet come :" 
a reply no less unnatural, and of which the only object could 
be to demonstrate the prophetic dignity of Jesus, by indica- 
ting that he regulated all his actions so as to fulfil exactly 
the divine decrees concerning him ; accordingly the phrase 
is a favourite one with this evangelist, John vii. 6 ; xiii. 1 ; 
xvi. 21. But as his compliance proves that the hour was 
about to come in a few seconds, such a declaration here would 
partake both of harshness and ostentation. " His mother 
saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do 
it." This implies that the mother of Jesus had the same 
foresight of what was to come that the writer had ; for how 
could she otherwise give such apposite introductory direc- 
tions ? — Jesus having as yet exhibited no miraculous powers, 
nor having intimated that he was about to give any directions 
to the servants. The enormous quantity of wine produced,* 
(about one hundred and thirty gallons,) and its goodness, 
which excites the wonder of the host, accord better with the 
aim of a narrator anxious to exhibit a great miracle, than 
with that of a reforming prophet. Whatever fact might 
have supplied a basis for the story, the greater part is evidently 
artificially contrived, to produce on the readers that effect 

* Josephus, Ant. viii. 2, 9, makes a bath equal to 72 &<nai, an Attic 
measure holding a pint. The /weT-p^s or firkin, also an Attic measure, is 
commonly represented equal to 72 i-corai, or 9 English gallons. Jahn's 
Antiq. § 114. The bath is rendered in the Septuagint )8ai0 and /xerpriTris. 
Calmet. But Calmet says the bath contained 1\ gallons. Six water-pots of 
2 or 3 metretes each (say 15) = 112^-, or 135 gallons. 



254 REMARKS ON THE OTHER MIRACLES 

which, the supposed occurrence is said to have produced on 
the beholders ; viz. " to manifest forth the glory of Jesus ." 
But as far as relates to the beholders, the whole must have 
been a failure ; for we learn elsewhere after all, that the kins- 
men of Jesus who were there did not believe in him. John 
vii. 5 5 Mark iii. 21. 

Now in this instance we have no means of detecting the 
progress of exaggeration or invention by comparing the story 
with another account; but, unless we had seen reason to 
confide implicitly in the writer's veracity, (which we have 
not, see chap, vi.) it would be more reasonable to suppose 
the simple fact to have been, that Jesus was once in his life 
present at a marriage-feast, and that some of his disciples in 
after-times endeavoured to honour him by attributing to him 
a miracle on the occasion, than to believe a story loaded with 
such improbabilities. 

Peter's wife's Matthew says, that Jesus touched the hand of 
Peter's wife's mother, " And the fever left her, 
and she arose and ministered unto them." Mark, although 
apparently borrowing from him, or from the same source, 
makes the affair resemble a miracle more by saying " imme- 
diately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them f 
and Luke completes it by saying, " it was a great fever" and 
u immediately she arose and ministered unto them." Now 
the variations, although perhaps made innocently, are im- 
portant; for the reality of the miracle depends upon the 
greatness of the fever, and upon the patient's exhibiting 
immediately some visible sign of recovery, such as rising. 

Casting out A more striking instance of the same sort is the 
demons. 

following. Matthew says, 

viii. 16, "When the even was come, they brought unto him many that 
were possessed with demons ; and he cast out the spirits with his word, and 
cured all that were sick." 

Mark i. 32, " And at even when the sun did set, they brought unto him 



IN THE FOUR GOSPELS. 255 

all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with demons. And 
all the city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many that 
were' sick of divers diseases ; and cast out many demons ; and suffered not 
the demons to speak, because they knew him. ' ' 

Luke iv. 40, " Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any 
sick with divers diseases, brought them unto him; and he laid hands on 
every one of them, and healed them. And demons also came out of many, 
crying out and saying, Thou art Christ, the Son of God. And he, rebuking 
them, suffered them not to speak : for they knew that he was Christ. 

It is obvious that the story has gained materially at each 
narration. 

Matthew says, that Jesus said to a paralytic man Cure of 
who believed in his power, 

ix. 2 — 8, " Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thy house. And he arose 
and departed to his house." 

Mark ii. 12, "And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth 
before them all." 

Luke v. 25, " And immediately he arose up before them, and took up that 
whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God." 

In such instances, the gradual enhancement is very different 
from wilful falsehood, since the additional particulars doubt- 
less seemed to the writers no less probable in themselves than 

edifying to the church. 

_ _ - The issue 

Matthew says, of blood. 

ix. 20, " A woman who was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, 
came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment. For she said 
within herself, If I may but touch his garment I shall be whole. But Jesus 
turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good com- 
fort ; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole 
from that hour." 

The narrative is simple and probable enough up to the last 
sentence, which might very naturally be supplied by Matthew, 
on supposition, as a proper conclusion, for he does not say 
how the fact was known. But let us turn to Mark's ac- 
count. 

Mark v. 25, " And a certain woman who had an issue of blood twelve 
years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all 
that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse ; when she 



256 REMARKS ON THE OTHER MIRACLES 

heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For 
she said, If I may but touch his clothes, I shall be well ; and straightway 
the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was 
healed of that plague ; and Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue 
had gone out of him, turned about in the press, and said, Who touched my 
clothes 1 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging 
thee, and say est thou, Who touched me ? And he looked round about to see her 
that had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what 
was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. 
And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole : go in 
peace and be whole of thy plague." 

Although Mark's additions have merely the appearance of 

amplifications upon Matthew, his account presents a much 

more decided miracle. And Luke has copied it in preference. 

Feeding of The feeding of the five thousand with five loaves 
the 5000. 

and two fishes is one of the best-attested of the 

miracles, because it is related by all the four evangelists, and 

without important contradictions, although Matthew and 

John, at least, appear not to have copied from each other ; 

also it is alluded to in two subsequent discourses. Yet, with 

all this, is it possible to say, that the evidence in support of 

this story is such as would entitle it to serious consideration 

if it were found in any other book ? The earliest account, 

that of Matthew, is as follows : — 

xiv. 15 — 22, " And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, say- 
ing, This is a desert place, and the time is now past ; send the multitude 
away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals. But 
Jesus said unto them, They need not depart ; give ye them to eat. And 
they say unto him, We have here but five loaves and two fishes. He said, 
Bring them hither to me. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on 
the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, 
and he blessed, brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples 
to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled : and they took up 
of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. And they that had 
eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children. And 
straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before 
him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. 1 ' 

The only important additions in the other accounts are, 



IN THE FOUR GOSPELS. 257 

that Mark says, they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by 
fifties ; Luke, that they sat by fifties in a company ; and John 
names Philip and Andrew as the disciples to whom Jesus 
addressed himself. 

Now, in Matt. xv. and Mark viii. we find a similar story 
of the feeding of four thousand men with seven loaves and a 
few fishes, seven baskets being taken up of the fragments : 
which story seems to be only another version of the former, 
because, Firstly, They agree with each other in the order of 
the speeches and events, and almost in the words. Secondly, 
In the latter story the disciples appear not to have the 
slightest remembrance of the first miraculous feeding, but 
ask, "Whence should we have bread in the wilderness to 
satisfy so great a multitude?" and Jesus in his answer shows 
the same unconsciousness of any similar occurrence. Thirdly, 
The scene agrees in each story ; in the former, Jesus had been 
in Galilee, and had come by ship into a desert place ; in the 
latter, he is on a mountain near the sea of Galilee. Fourthly, 
After each miracle Jesus sends the multitude away, and passes 
over the sea. Fifthly, Luke and John relate only the feeding 
of five thousand. 

Consequently, Matthew tells the same story twice, and con- 
tradicts himself notably in all his numbers. From xvi. 9, 10, 
it is plain that he considered that he had related two separate 
occurrences, which renders it probable that he merely gave 
both accounts as he found them ; the different way of nar- 
rating the same story in the church having caused it to grow 
into two before he wrote. But in whatever way the doubling 
originated, it being admitted that both stories must refer to 
the same incident, this reflection arises, — since the two nar- 
ratives differ from each other so much concerning the number 
of baskets-full taken up, and of the multitude filled, may not 
the real transaction differ from them both so far as that a 



258 



REMARKS ON THE OTHER MIRACLES 



less number of baskets-full were taken up, and that a less 
number of persons than the whole multitude were fed ? — on 
which two points the miracle depends. 

Since Mark and Luke appear to have borrowed from Mat- 
thew, or from the same tradition, their testimony in this case 
is of little value. Every tradition concerning Christ was 
doubtless repeated by hundreds in the church; and, after 
forty years, an additional narrator added little or nothing to 
its credibility. Matthew and John alone have any title to 
be considered as independent witnesses ; but they, too, may 
have depended upon the account of some one disciple, perhaps 
John himself; although even he does not state that he was 
an eye-witness. In fact, we have not an account from any 
one person on whom we can depend as having been present ; 
we are obliged to rest this important point on an inference, 
viz., that John must have been amongst " the disciples." * 

The discourses which allude to these miracles bear strong 
marks of fiction. In Matthew xvi. 6 — 12, the disciples, ac- 
customed as they were to disputes on the doctrines of the 
Pharisees and Sadducees, and immediately after a discussion 
with some of these two sects, cannot understand Jesus when he 
tells them to " beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sad- 

* It has been seen that our first Gospel is not probably the compilation 
of the apostle Matthew, and that it is uncertain how much it preserves of 
the record left by him. The doubt applies especially to the narrative parts, 
and must therefore exclude any reasoning which must depend on the sup- 
position that Matthew the apostle was the real author. The reader will 
have perceived that, for the sake of brevity, the word " Matthew" is used 
frequently for "the writer of the Gospel of Matthew," when the subject in 
hand is not affected by this ambiguity. Although we must regret the want of 
certainty on this point, it is not in reality of the first importance, since, owing 
to the little we know of Matthew the apostle, he and an unknown member 
of the Jewish church must stand nearly on a par with respect to credibility • 
i. e., for either of them it must be determined chiefly by internal evidence. 
We must even have depended, in most cases, on this, in order to be satis- 
fied that the apostle was an eye-witness, since he is so seldom named in the 
Gospels. 



IN THE FOUR GOSPELS. 259 

ducees." And shortly after they are supposed to have wit- 
nessed the two miraculous supplies of loaves, they appear 
distressed at having forgotten to bring bread, and not one of 
them thinks of applying to Jesus. Could any set of men in 
such circumstances really be so dull as to need the reproof 
attributed to Jesus, " O ye of little faith ... do ye not re- 
member the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many 
baskets ye took up ? Neither the seven loaves of the four 
thousand, and how many baskets ye took up ? " But such 
inconsistencies, although betraying the fiction to the reader, 
might be overlooked by an incautious writer, inclined to the 
marvellous, and giving himself little pains to preserve an his- 
torical coherence between his materials.* 

Again, in John vi. 26, Jesus is made to say, " Ye seek me 
not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the 
loaves, and were filled." Yet immediately afterwards the 
people to whom he speaks thus, say, " What sign showest thou 
then that we may see and believe thee ? What dost thou 
work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is 
written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat." The peo- 
ple thus appear to have forgotten the miraculous feeding as 
quickly and as completely as the disciples ; and Jesus himself 
in his answer takes no further notice of it ; for instead of 
appealing to it as a sign already given, he merely says, that 
he himself is the true bread from heaven. Can any one ima- 
gine, if the miraculous feeding had really taken place, that 



* In bringing together truth and fiction in one narrative, some awkward 
joinings must be left, which it requires a violent hypothesis to complete. 
Of such a kind is the extreme dulness which it is often found necessary to 
attribute to the disciples. Their unconsciousness of the miraculous event 
was probably the truth ; the miracle itself, and the discourse alluding to it, 
the fiction : the two are generally reconciled at the expense of the disciples' 
understanding. See more on this subject in the chapter on Christ's predic- 
tions of his death. 

s2 



260 



REMARKS ON THE OTHER MIRACLES 



the people would have made such an absurd demand as to re- 
quire for a sign, as the condition of their believing in Jesus, the 
very thing which they had just witnessed, viz., the giving them 
bread in the desert ? The same explanation occurs here as in 
the instance above from Matthew — that there is probably a 
mixture of truth and fiction in the discourses as well as in the 
narrative. The demand for a sign was very likely to be really 
made, since Josephus says, that the leaders claiming divine in- 
spiration generally pretended to give signs from heaven ; and 
reasons have been suggested (chap, vi.) for believing that fic- 
titious accounts of miracles were invented in later times to 
serve in the controversy with the opponents of the church. 

In reality it was easier to ask for bread from heaven than to 
give it ; but in narration both were equally easy. It is stated 
more than once that Jesus did not comply with the demands 
for a sign ; but the promulgators of traditions after his death 
might think that a compliance with, rather than a refusal of, 
the demand, would have a better effect in promoting belief. 
Hence stories crept in of the actual giving of the bread from 
heaven, whilst traces both of incident and dialogue remain 
conformable to the probable original fact, viz., that it was 
asked for, but not given. 

With the difficulties which are found to clog the narratives 
of Matthew and John, it seems to require a more established 
character for accuracy, impartiality, and freedom from the 
disposition to invent or exaggerate, than belongs to either of 
them, to compel our belief of such a story on the strength 
chiefly of their testimony ; and the more so, when there are 
such obvious means of accounting for its existence. That 
some real incident served as a basis for it is very probable. 
With the exception of one verse, the 20th, Matthew's whole 
account is not unnatural. Jesus was one evening in the 
desert, and commanded his disciples to distribute what food 



IN THE FOUR GOSPELS. 261 

they had amongst the multitude. He gave thanks on break- 
ing the bread, as was usual among the Essenes.* In the 
darkness and confusion, (for, notwithstanding the command 
to sit down in companies, f those who are used to large 
assemblies will imagine that the voice of twelve disciples alone 
could not have enforced very strict order amongst five thou- 
sand hungry men, besides women and children,) it was 
impossible to know how many had eaten, and how far they 
felt satisfied. This situation of Jesus bore much resemblance 
to that of Moses, when he was called upon to feed the hungry 
Israelites ; but so far, the performance fell very short of that 
of the Hebrew prophet. Consequently, one of the disciples, 
or some other narrator, could not resist the temptation to 
add that all the multitude were filled ; and subsequently, in 
another narration, it was added, that twelve baskets-full were 
left. But here the fictitious parts disclose themselves by 
their want of coherence. The twelve baskets-full startle the 
reader, who involuntarily exclaims, "Where did they come 
from, and for what purpose V 3 since, up to the middle of verse 
20, Matthew appears to mean that Jesus had divided only 
the five loaves and two fishes, and that the multitude were 
filled with what they had from these, giving no hint of a 
multiplication of the loaves, or of the appearance of fresh 
loaves, which one would think must have attracted the atten- 
tion of the beholders, and formed one of the most striking 
parts of the incident. This clause concerning the quantity 
of the fragments seems evidently to have been added to the 
first story, that the people were all filled, by Matthew or 



* " It is unlawful for any one to taste of the food before grace be said." 
— Jos. War, 2, viii. 5. 

f This addition, however, by Mark, has very much the appearance of 
being one of his usual amplifications upon Matthew, arising from his pro- 
pensity to enter into details. 



262 



REMARKS ON THE OTHER MIRACLES 



some other incautious narrator, who, in his eagerness to 
magnify the miracle, did not stop to consider whether his 
improvement cohered with the rest.* 

The discourse in John vi. 32 — 58 leads us to conjecture 
that some figurative and poetical descriptions of Christ's 
doctrine, as the bread of heaven, which he distributed in 
the desert, being repeated, after a time, in the style of facts, 
contributed to the formation of the story as it now stands. 
Blind man Mark relates the cure of a blind man as fol- 
lows : — 






near 
Jericho 



x. 46 — 52, " And they came to Jericho : and as he went out of Jericho 
with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimeus, the son of 
Timeus, sat by the highway- side begging. And when he heard that it was 
Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou son of David, 
have mercy on me. And many charged him that he should hold his peace; 
but he cried the more a great deal, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. 
And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the 
blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise ; he calleth thee. 
And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus. And Jesus an- 
swered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee ? The 
blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus 
said unto him, Go thy way : thy faith hath made thee whole [or hath saved 
thee, (xeawKe oV}. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus 
in the way." 

The answer of Jesus is remarkable, for it does not pledge 
him to the instant recovery of the blind man's sight : it 
merely dismisses him with an undefined promise. It seems 
likely that the man did go away, was lost sight of in the 



* It is curious to observe the manner in which the other three treat this 
difficulty. Mark appears to have thought upon it, for he states very clearly 
that it was the five loaves and two fishes which he divided " among them 
all;" but on coming to the fragments, he ceases to explain so exactly, and 
briefly copies Matthew. Luke preserves a more prudent indistinctness, and 
says, "he brake and gave," without repeating "them" or "the loaves." 
Bat John gives a bolder account, and says, they distributed to the multi- 
tude " as much as they would." 



AM/\TTT/J € 



IN THE FOUR GOSPELS. 263 



crowd, and that the relators of the story soon amplified it 
with the addition, "immediately he received his sight. " But 
it might be asked, Did any body see him afterwards ? had he 
his sight then, and how was it known that he had been blind? 
These questions were fully provided for in the edition of the 
story published about twenty-five or thirty years later, viz., 
in John, ch. ix. Here, although it is admitted that the man 
did not immediately receive his sight, (for we are told that the 
man only saw after he had been to the pool of Siloam,) the 
account is rendered, on the whole, more marvellous by a 
cross-examination of the man and his parents by the Pha- 
risees. That John refers to the same transaction may be 
gathered from these parts : verse 1, " And as Jesus passed 
by" . . . ver. 7, the pool of Siloam implies that it was near 
Jerusalem . . . ver. 8, " The neighbours said, Is not this he 
that sat and begged ?" — which all agrees with Mark. Ver. 6, 
fi He anointed his eyes with clay," contradicts Mark, but it 
agrees with Matthew xx. 34, " He touched their eyes," plainly 
a parallel passage to that in Mark, although Matthew has 
made two blind men, for the speeches and circumstances co- 
incide almost literally. Luke has inserted Mark's account 
with little variation, except that he makes the affair happen 
as Jesus went unto Jericho, instead of going from it ; and he 
adds, that "all the people, when they saw it, gave praise 
unto God." 

Now, the whole account in Mark has nothing miraculous, 
except the clause contradicted by John, that the man imme- 
diately received his sight. Admit John's account of the 
cross-examination by the Pharisees to be true, and the affair 
is difficult to explain, except by supposing a real miracle or a 
contrived imposture. But all the dialogue added by John is 
no more than what might occur to a man of moderate inven- 
tion, zealous to answer objections, and, as he himself declares, 



264 REMARKS ON THE OTHER MIRACLES 

to make the church believe, xx. 31. And under this view all 

difficulty vanishes. 

The two Matthew relates, ix. 27, another story of the cure 

blind men. 

of two blind men, after that of Jairus's daughter. 
Now, as Mark says nothing of these blind men after relating 
the same story of Jairus's daughter, and as parts of Mat- 
thew's two stories coincide with each other exactly, (" And 
as Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying 
and saying, Thou son of David, have mercy on us ;" — xx. 30, 
" And behold two blind men sitting by the way side, when 
they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have 
mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David;") it seems most 
likely that Matthew here also relates the same story two 
different ways. Thus, for one cure of one blind man in 
Mark, there are two cures of two blind men in Matthew. 

Centurion's Matthew relates the story of a centurion's ser- 
servant or . ... „ ., „ , . , n ,, 

child. y ant or child, 7rme,* vm. 5 — 13, which ends thus : 

" And Jesus said, Go thy way, and as thou hast 

believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed 

in the self-same hour." Luke says, vii. 10, " And they that 

were sent, returning to the house, found the servant well that 

had been sick." And John, in a story which has so many 

points of agreement with Matthew's that it seems to be 

founded on the same incident, f says, iv. 51 — 53, "And as he 



* From the ambiguity of this word, different versions of the story were 
likely to arise. Luke fixes the sense to "servant," by changing the word 
for 8ov\os. But John uses Matthew's word -rrais, ver. 51, and gives it the 
meaning " child" by substituting, at ver. 46, vlos, son. 

f John says that this was the second miracle done by Jesus when he was 
come out of Judea into Galilee ; Matthew puts it near the beginning of 
Jesus's public progress. Both agree that the patient lay at Capernaum. 
Matthew says the applicant was a centurion, eKarovrapxos ; John, that he 
was a certain nobleman or ruler, r« putnAwos. John says that the patient 
was the applicant's child, Trots, or son ; Matthew uses the same word, irats. 
Both agree that Jesus said, " Go thy way," and that the patient was healed 



IN THE FOUR GOSPELS. 265 

was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, 
saying, Thy son liveth. Then inquired he of them the hour 
when he began to amend : and they said unto him, Yester- 
day, at the seventh hour, the fever left him. So the father 
knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said unto 
him, Thy son liveth; and himself believed, and his whole 
house."* 

Here the vague assertion in Matthew, which gives no par- 
ticulars, and therefore might seem to be merely the narrator's 
own inference from the words of Jesus, is very amply filled 
up in the later narratives. But had the authors of these 
acquired information of additional facts, or did they merely 
give an amplified edition of the first story ? It is evident that 
the additions in Luke and John might easily be suggested by 
Matthew's brief conclusion ; but, on the other hand, it seems 
extraordinary that he, the earliest narrator of the three, 
should be ignorant of those important circumstances on 



in the same hour ; and both notice the applicant's faith as remarkable. 
John, indeed, calls the sickness a fever, but such a variation might easily 
glide into the story in twenty-five years. 

* The following story is found in the Talmud, Berachoth, fol. 34, 2 : — 
" When the son of R. Gamaliel was sick, he sent straightway two disciples 
to R. Chanina ben Dosa, that he should pray to God for him. When there- 
fore he saw them, he went to the house-top, and prayed for him. But when 
he was come down, he saith to them, Go, for his fever hath departed. 
They answered, Art thou a prophet ? He said, I am neither a prophet, nor 
the son of a prophet ; yet when I am able to repeat my prayers with ready 
lips, I then know that I am heard ; but if that happens not, I know that 
the thing is in vain. Then they wrote down, and noted the hour. And 
when they were come to R. Gamaliel, he saith to them, Ye have done 
nothing too much nor too little in your charge : for thus the thing hath 
happened with my son. At that hour the fever left him, and he asked for 
water to drink." The date of the different parts of the Talmud cannot be 
exactly fixed, but there is a general improbability that the Rabbis of the 
first few centuries would have borrowed from the Nazarene writings. 
Schoettgen remarks, " An egg is not more like an egg than this story to 
the Gospel narrative. Interim tamen qui fictiones ingeniorum Judaicorum 
perspectas habet, is de veritate illarum statim judicium ferre poterit." 



266 REMARKS ON THE OTHER MIRACLES 

which the evidence of the miracle rested; or, if knowing 
them, that he should pass them over in so slovenly a manner, 
whilst he gives the rest of the story very circumstantially. 

Read John's account, and you find a decided and circum- 
stantially related miracle ; go back about twenty-five years to 
Luke, and the miraculous part is reduced to a brief sentence; 
approach still nearer to the source, and in Matthew the mi- 
racle has as much the appearance of being a matter of infer- 
ence as of knowledge. How can we avoid suspecting that, 
if earlier testimony could be obtained, all that was known of 
the matter would be found to end at the words of Jesus, 
" Go thy way, and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto 
thee V 3 From which it was concluded that the patient was 
healed. 

II. Again, in common life, accounts are sometimes met 
with, the marvellous part of which is much reduced when we 
can obtain additional independent testimony concerning the 
original fact; and when this has been found to be the case in 
some instances, we look with distrust on other marvellous 
accounts coming from the same source. 

So it is with Matthew. In some instances Mark serves as 
a check upon him; for, although Mark for the most part 
borrowed from Matthew, and in such places shows a manifest 
disposition to enhance the miraculous by many little exagge- 
rations and improvements, yet, in a few places, he appears 
evidently, from the nature of the particulars added, to bring 
information gathered from other sources, possibly from Peter; 
and in several of these the miracle is rendered very doubtful. 
Cure of the Matthew says, in relating the cure of the lu- 
lunatic. natic, xvii. 18, "And Jesus rebuked the demon, 

and he departed out of him : and the child was cured from 
that very hour." Any one would gather from this that an 
instantaneous cure was performed ; but we want more precise 



IN THE FOUR GOSPELS. 267 

particulars of what was seen to take place ; for the departure 
of the demon was an invisible operation. Mark's account is 
so different that he seems to have obtained some additional 
information as to this occurrence : he says, 

ix. 25, " When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he 
rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I 
charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. And the spirit 
cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him ; and he was as one dead ; 
insomuch that many said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, 
and lifted him up, and he arose." 

All which throws the miracle into doubt ; for the fits, which 

had lasted already some time, did not cease immediately at 

Jesus's command, but continued so violently, that the falling 

down might be the natural termination from exhaustion. 

Now, since Matthew has related this as an indisputable 

miracle, he may not have had a better foundation for his 

other numerous miracles of casting out demons, iv. 24, viii. 

16, although, for want of particulars, we cannot judge so well 

of these. Another passage in Mark, however, confirms the 

idea that many might be explained in the same way : i. 26, 

" And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come 

out of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and 

cried with a loud voice, he came out of him." 

Matthew relates the withering of the barren Barren fig- 
tree, 
fig-tree thus : — 

xxi. 19, " And when he saw a fig-tree in the way, he came to it, and 
found nothing thereon, but leaves only ; and said unto it, Let no fruit 
grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently (irapaxpw^, usually 
translated, instantly, or on the spot)* the fig-tree withered away. And when 
the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon, irapaxpyfia, is the 
fig-tree withered away !" 

Here the immediate withering forms a conspicuous part of 

the story; the force of the disciples' remark depends upon 

* Schrevelius, Actutum, ex tempore, illico, in ipsa re. 



268 REMARKS ON THE OTHER MIRACLES 

it. But according to Mark, it was only found to be withered 
the next day. 

xi. 13, " And seeing a fig-tree afar off, having leaves, he came, if haply 
he might find any thing thereon ; and when he came to it he found nothing 
hut leaves ; for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and 
said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples 

heard it. And they come to Jerusalem And when even was come he 

went out of the city. And in the morning as they passed by, they saw the 
fig-tree dried up from the roots. And Peter calling to remembrance, saith 
unto him, Master, behold the fig-tree which thou cursedst is withered away. 
And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I 
say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed 
and be cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe 
that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatso- 
ever he saith." 

The rejection of the miracle does not require us to suppose 
a contrivance on the part of Jesus to have the fig-tree 
withered. The character of Messiah, which he believed him- 
self to possess, would not allow him to stoop to art of so low 
a kind ; but it might allow of his relieving himself from the 
awkward appearance of disappointment on finding no fruit, 
and thereby maintaining his dignity in the eyes of his fol- 
lowers, by concluding the matter with a prophetic curse upon 
the tree. Yet he merely said that no man should hereafter 
eat fruit of it ; which required no immediate change in the 
tree to save his credit, for no fruit could possibly be found on 
it before another season, when probably the affair would be 
forgotten. Nevertheless, the tree being in the highway, was 
either casually or intentionally injured by some of the 
crowd; and on a subsequent visit, any altered appearance 
would be enough to suggest a miraculous fulfilment of the 
curse. Since one principal feature of the miracle in Matthew, 
the instantaneousness of the withering, is destroyed by 
Mark, it is reasonable to conjecture that the proof of 
the miracle put forward by Mark himself, the drying up of 
the tree from the roots, within twenty-four hours, would, 



IN THE FOUR GOSPELS. 269 

in its turn, be much modified by some still more searching 
account. 

It was the custom of Jesus to take occasion from common- 
place incidents to utter predictions or other remarkable say- 
ings. When events in any degree corresponded, the predic- 
tions were most likely to be preserved, as in the case of the 
fig-tree. Yet there is one prediction recorded without any 
corresponding event, viz. the promise of the tribute-money 
from the fish's mouth, Matt. xvii. 27. Matthew does not 
say that the fish was taken ; and the others do not even 
allude to the conversation. If any thing of the kind had 
really been done by Peter, we should have expected some 
mention of it, at least from his follower Mark. 

If any other editions of the story of the tribute-money had 
reached us, can we doubt that some of them would have 
borne the usual ending, "And it happened according to 
his word," or " as he had said, the fish was taken ? " This 
story, arrested, as it were, in the process of formation, brings 
before us more distinctly the steps by which others reached 
their complete state. In many cases, it was probably difficult 
or impossible to ascertain whether the words of Jesus were 
really accomplished or not. But tradition would naturally 
tend to affix to all of them the easy and apparently desirable 
termination of an instantaneous accomplishment. 

The two stories of the blind men in Matthew Blind man 

at 

represent them as receiving their sight imme- Bethsaida. 
diately when their eyes were touched. The story in Mark, 
of the blind man at Bethsaida, cannot be identified with 
either of the former, but it may be compared with them, in 
order to show the different aspect which a miracle of this 
kind may assume when related more circumstantially. For 
this is evidently a story which Mark had obtained from some 
other source than from Matthew; since, besides the remarkable 



270 REMARKS ON THE OTHER MIRACLES 

character of its particulars, it is introduced in a place where 
there is nothing corresponding to it in Matthew, although the 
parts both before and after it agree with the latter. 

Mark viii. 22 — 27, " And he cometh to Bethsaida, and they bring a 
blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the 
blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town ; and when he had 
spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw 
aught. And he looked up and said, I see men as trees walking. After 
that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up : and 
he was restored, and saw every man clearly. And he sent him away 
to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the 
town. And Jesus went out, and his disciples, into the town of Csesarea 
Philippi." 

Here Jesus tries twice before he appears to succeed ; which 
is totally inconsistent with the idea of divine power, but agrees 
very well with the supposition that the case was one of im- 
perfect amaurosis, and that the walk from the town, the 
repeated application of the hands to the eyes, and the excite- 
ment of imagination produced by the expectation of miracu- 
lous aid, acted gradually as stimulants upon the torpid nerves, 
and permitted a temporary, or possibly a permanent, recovery 
of sight.* 



* Amaurosis, or gutta serena, is a kind of blindness in which the sensi- 
bility of the retina and optic nerve is either partly or wholly lost. It is some- 
times an intermittent disorder, appearing and subsiding at intervals. When 
the eye remains at all conscious of light, or retains any power of seeing, it 
is called imperfect amaurosis. Sometimes during the progress of the 
disease the sight is cloudy, and the patient can see better in a light than a 
dark situation; sometimes he sees black specks, net-like appearances, 
streaks, and snake-like figures. He always sees plainer for a short time 
after the outward use of tonic remedies, such as hartshorn, cold water, &c. 
Richter relates a case of almost total blindness, in which the patient was 
able to see very well for an hour after drinking champagne. He also 
mentions a woman who had entirely lost her sight, but who was in the 
habit of acquiring it again for half an hour by walking briskly in her 
garden. Sometimes patients who are wholly blind have a small part of the 
retina still susceptible of the impression of light, usually situated toward one 
side of the eye. Richter mentions a man in whom this sensible part was 
situated obliquely over the nose, and so small that it was always a con- 



IN THE FOUR GOSPELS. 271 

In this case, Jesus sought privacy for performing the 
miracle, whilst in the cases of demons and other diseases 
he did not object to exert his supposed power in public. 
This seems to indicate that he was aware of greater diffi- 
culty in cases of blindness, and that he considered more 
solemn preparation, or more earnest faith, as essential to 
success. 

Matthew, Mark, and John, relate that one of Malchus's 

ear. 
the disciples cut off the high-priest's servant's ear, 

on the apprehension of Jesus. Luke alone adds, " And he 
touched his ear, and healed him/' xxii. 51. The silence of 
those both before and after Luke concerning such an im- 
portant particular, whilst relating the connected circum- 
stances, — of John, supposed to be an eye-witness ; and of 
Mark, who was acquainted with Peter, an eye-witness ; and 
especially the omission of the story by John after it had been 
once promulgated; — all this is nearly equivalent to a denial 
of it. 

Luke also relates, on his own authority alone, The angel 

in the gar- 

that whilst Jesus was praying in the garden " there den. 
appeared unto him an angel from heaven strength- 
ening him/' xxii. 63. Matthew, Mark, and John, who must 
have had, at least, as good means as Luke of knowing this 
circumstance, relate the prayer without mentioning it. But 
it seems out of place to criticise as matter of fact what ap- 



siderable time before its situation could be discovered : he adds, it was also 
so sensible as not only to discern the light, but the spire of a distant steeple^ 
The disease being generally occasioned by torpor or paralysis of the nerves 
stimulants and tonics^act as remedies by restoring the nervous activity. 
Electricity is sometimes used with effect. Amaurosis produced by wounds 
of the eyebrow has occasionally been cured by strong frictions upon the 
eyebrows, and by rubbing the same part for a considerable time with emol- 
lient oils and ointments. See Hey, Medical Observ. and Inquiries ; Scarpa 
on the Eyes ; Richters Principles of Surgery. 



272 REMARKS ON THE OTHER MIRACLES 

pears so plainly to have been originally a beautiful poetical 
addition to the close of Jesus' s career. * 

III. The foregoing instances show that the four Evan- 
gelists are not to be considered as writers who made it their 
study to adhere throughout to strict facts, but who allowed 
themselves occasionally to blend with these such fiction as 
appeared likely to increase the interest and efficacy of their 

* It is curious to observe the close resemblance between two writers 
usually considered so dissimilar as Luke and Thomson. The Evangelist of 
Antioch says, " that Jesus retired to pray in the mount of Olives, and that 
there appeared an angel from Heaven strengthening him." The Scotch 
poet says, 

" Still let me pierce into the midnight depth 
Of yonder grove, of wildest, largest growth, 
That, forming high in air a woodland quire, 
Nods o'er the mount beneath. At every step, 
Solemn and slow, the shadows blacker fall, 
And all is awful listening gloom around. 

These are the haunts of meditation, these 
The scenes where ancient bards th' inspiring breath 
Ecstatic felt ; and from this world retired 
Conversed with angels, and immortal forms 
On gracious errands bent ; to save the fall 
Of virtue struggling on the brink of vice ; 
In waking whispers and repeated dreams 
To hint pure thoughts, and warn the favoured soul 
For further trials fated to prepare ; 
To prompt the poet, who devoted gives 
His muse to better themes ; to sooth the pangs 
Of dying worth, and from the patriot's breast 

to turn the death, 

And numberless such offices of love, 
Daily and nightly, zealous to perform." 

It may somewhat diminish our regret at being compelled to part with 
such things as realities, to reflect that the mind which produces them is 
itself a reality. The loss of the beautiful evanescent shapes is partly com- 
pensated by the contemplation of that which can call them forth at will. 
We bid farewell the more readily to such visitants as the angel of Geth- 
semane, on reflecting that there have existed and do exist numberless minds 
which, by their power of forming conceptions of the sublime and beautiful, 
as well as by their disposition to perform themselves the gracious offices of 
the ministering spirits, stand before us, notwithstanding the imperfections 
of humanity, the real and accessible representatives of the angelic nature. 



IN THE FOUR GOSPELS. 273 

narratives. This ascertained character of the narrators must 

be taken into account in the examinations of other miracles 

which do not fall exactly under the foregoing heads. 

Matthew has an account of the stilling of a Stilling the 

tempest, 
tempest by Jesus, viii. 23 — 27, which Mark and 

Luke appear to have borrowed with little variation. The 

miracle consists in the instantaneousness of the calm, which 

may be an exaggeration similar to that of the instantaneous 

withering of the fig-tree. * 

Matthew relates, that after the feeding of the Walking on 

the sea. 
five thousand, Jesus walked on the water, and 

that Peter quitted the ship, and walked on the water also. 
Mark relates the same thing, omitting Peter's part. John 
also omits Peter's walking on the water, but adds a new 
miracle, that the ship was immediately at the land whither it 
went. The fact might be, that Jesus rejoined them at a 
different part of the shore from that which they had left, 
and that walking near or in the shallow water, he appeared 
in the darkness to be walking on the water, which impression 
was afterwards worked out by John, or some other disciple, 
into the present story. Peter's beginning to sink might have 
been originally a description of his temporary apostacy, which 
Matthew put into the shape of fact ; but Mark, who knew 
the apostle, was probably aware that this was a misinterpre- 
tation, and therefore omitted it. After the feeding of the 
four thousand, which, it has been seen, has every appearance 



* Dr. E. D. Clarke, describing the sea of Tiberias, says, " the wind 
rendered the surface rough." And Buckingham, " Long-continued tem- 
pests from any one quarter are here unknown ; but its local features render 
it occasionally subject to whirlwinds, squalls, and sudden gusts from the 
hollow of the mountains, which, as in any other similar basin, are of short 
duration, and the most furious gust is succeeded by a perfect calm." — 
Calmet's Dictionary. This peculiarity is not alluded to in the description by 
Josephus, War, iii. 10, 7. Nor by Lightfoot, Cent. Chorog., cap. 70. 



274 REMARKS ON THE OTHER MIRACLES 

of being founded on the same incident as that of the five thou- 
sand, nothing is said of walking on the water, but simply that 
Jesus " took ship and came into the coasts of Magdala." 
Transfigu- The transfiguration is related by Matthew, 

ration. 

Mark, and Luke, who were not present; but not 
by John, who was said to be one of those present. It is not 
alluded to in any other part of the New Testament, except 
in the second or spurious Epistle of Peter. It has the ap- 
pearance of a poetical tale, composed after the death of Jesus, 
for the purpose of putting him on an equality with Moses and 
Elias ; for the face of Moses shone when he came down from 
the mount ; both he and Elias heard the divine voice speak- 
ing directly to them; and both were supposed by many of 
the Jews to have ascended into heaven. Possibly it origi- 
nated in some dream of Peter, which, like the temptation, 
soon came to be related as matter of fact. But, whatever 
were its origin, there are these objections to its reality. 
Peter, on seeing the two men with Jesus, immediately knows 
them to be Moses and Elias, although he had never seen 
these two, and nobody had told him they were about to 
appear. Luke says, their discourse was concerning Jesus's 
decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem, although 
Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep. 
The offer of Peter, to make three tabernacles, seems un- 
natural and ill-timed for the witness of a real fact of the 
nature described. Jesus charges the disciples, Matt. xvii. 9, 
to tell the vision to no man until the Son of Man be risen 
again from the dead ; although, from John xx. 9, it would 
seem he had never given them notice of such an event. 
Moreover, the whole story was only published a considerable 
time afterwards ; for Luke says, ix. 36, " they kept it close, 
and told no man in those days any of those things which 
they had seen." 



IN THE FOUR GOSPELS,- 275 

John relates that Jesus uttered in public a The voice 

from hea- 

prayer ending with these words : — ven. 

" Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, 
saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The people 
therefore that stood by said that it thundered : others said, an angel spake 
to him. xii. 28, 29." 

I transcribe here Middleton's remarks* on the Bath 
Kol : — " The spirit of prophecy which continued in the 
Jewish church till after its restoration from the Baby- 
lonish captivity, had entirely ceased under the second temple, 
for three centuries at least before Christ. But there suc- 
ceeded to it, as all the Jewish writers unanimously testify, an 
oracular voice from heaven, which was given occasionally to 
the leading rabbis or teachers of the law, to direct them how 
to act and speak on particular emergencies. It is said to 
have been accompanied generally with a kind of thunder, out 
of which it issued in a clear and articulate manner, and 
thence derived its name of Bath Kol, the daughter-voice, or 
daughter of a voice. The Bath Kol, says Lightfoot, was this : 
( When a voice or thunder came out of Heaven, another 
voice came out of it/ (Lightfoot's Works, vol. ii. p. 128; 
in Matt. iii. 17.) This way of divine instruction is affirmed 
to have been subsisting during the time of our Saviour, and 
to the final dissolution of the Jewish state ; and is considered 
by all their doctors as an inferior kind of prophecy, or a sort 
of twilight indulged to them after the sun of prophecy was 
set; (Spencer on the Vulgar Prophecies, ch. vii. p. 126;) 
and from this pretended source they derived the greater part 
of those traditions with which they corrupted the law of 
Moses." However, Dr. Spencer said, " the Bath Kol was a 
Jewish fable ;" and Prideaux, that " the Bath Kol was no such 

* Middleton's Examination of the Bishop of London's Discourse on 
Prophecy. 

T 2 



276 REMARKS ON THE OTHER MIRACLES 

voice from heaven as they pretended, but a fantastical way of 
divination of their own invention." — Connect., vol. ii. p. 256, 
edit. fol. 

Now, supposing that there was so much of real incident as 
the clap of thunder, which, according to the narrative itself, 
was, in the opinion of many present, all that happened, how 
natural it was for John or other disciples to suppose it to be 
the Bath Kol, and first to imagine, and then to relate, the 
words of the divine voice ! 

Yet, taking into consideration the ascertained characteris- 
tics of the fourth Gospel, it is perhaps more reasonable to 
conjecture that the whole is merely an embellishment intended 
to glorify Jesus. His ministry had been ushered in by a 
voice from heaven in all the narratives ; in this, its termina- 
tion is also signalized by the celestial sign. 
Jairas's The raising of Jairus's daughter, Matt. ix. 18, 

daughter. 

Mark v. 22 ; Luke viii. 41, is comparatively well 

attested ; for Mark, who here plainly brings additional infor- 
mation, agrees in the chief points with Matthew. It cannot 
be supposed to have been a concerted contrivance between 
Jairus and Jesus ; for such a contrivance could only have had 
for its object to convince the multitude of the miraculous 
character of Jesus, and the scene would have been acted in 
public : whereas the multitude were excluded, and Jesus 
admitted only the father, the mother, and three of his own 
disciples — Peter, James, and John. Since Jairus applied to 
him in public, and professed his belief, he could not refuse 
to exert his supposed miraculous power, which, for ought he 
knew, might be sufficient even to raise the dead, since it had 
been found competent to cast out demons. Yet the privacy 
which he sought for the actual performance of the miracle, 
when his previous announcement to the multitude would 
seem to entitle them also to the means of conviction, at least 






IN THE FOUR GOSPELS. 277 

by an immediate report from those present, indicates some 
latent distrust. The disciples, according to Mark and Luke, 
were even forbidden to tell any one what had taken place 
in the house, which secrecy is inexplicable, on the supposition 
of the miracle having been really performed ; for as yet there 
was no disposition to make him a king, and he had not been 
disinclined to perform publicly numerous other miracles, of a 
more dubious sort to modern inquirers, but indubitable in 
the eyes of the Jewish multitude, viz., casting out demons, 
and healing the sick. If the object of the miracle were to 
prove his divine authority, why should such a decided miracle 
as raising a dead person be kept secret ? 

The point, however, on which the miracle depends is, that 
the child was really dead. Now, the three accounts before 
us state that Jesus said, " The maid is not dead, but sleep- 
eth." So that if we believe Jesus himself literally,* the 
matter is explained at once ; and the existence of the story as 
it now stands is accounted for thus: Matthew, or his in- 
formant, desirous to exhibit the affair as a miracle, by a 
slight variation converted the first message, that the child 
was dying, into an assertion that she was dead, ereXevTYicrev. 
Mark, from his additional means of information, gave the 
first original message correctly; but having also Matthew 
before him, and being himself well disposed to represent the 
event as miraculous, he inserted a second message, coming 

* The speech attributed to Jesus by Mark, " Why make ye this ado, 
and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth," is inconsistent with a 
belief on his part that she was really dead ; for, in this case, why should 
he choose to say, in so pointed a manner, what was not only incorrect, but 
must throw so much doubt upon the miracle ? The quiet consciousness that 
the words will be understood finally in a figurative sense, seems to belong 
rather to the narrator, who has his readers in view, than to Jesus, who 
would probably have regard to the impression produced upon his hearers. 
But the objection does not apply, if he be supposed to mean what he said 
literally. 



278 REMARKS ON THE OTHER MIRACLES 

up fully to Matthew's statement, that the maid was dead. 
This point being established at the outset of the story, 
the rest was accommodated to a figurative interpretation 
of the words of Jesus, and with this view probably the 
addition, ff "they laughed him to scorn," was made. For the 
reality of this is inconsistent with the opinion which the 
people of Galilee had of Jesus as a prophet, and which was 
shared by Jairus and his household, as is seen by their sending 
for him. With respect to the recovery of the maiden, Mat- 
thew merely says, " he took her by the hand, and the maid 
arose." Mark says, "straightway she arose, and walked," 
which might be one of his frequent exaggerations. 

Leaving aside the question of the Evangelist's accuracy, 
the story, to have any pretension to truth, must have come 
from one of these six — Peter, James, John, Jairus, his wife, 
or his daughter ; and how can it be shown that each of these 
was incapable of adding such variations as were required to 
make the story miraculous ? And it cannot be doubted that, 
if any one of these had issued it, the story would have ap- 
peared sufficiently authentic to the majority of the church. 

But, after all, the most simple conclusion may be this : 
Jesus commanded secrecy to those who were with him in the 
chamber ; he was obeyed, and consequently no one else knew 
exactly what took place there; but, as Matthew says, "a 
report went abroad into all that land," and that report is the 
story which we now have. 
Raising Another account of raising a dead person, viz., 

the dead 

at Nain. the widow's son at Nain, is related by Luke only, 
vii. 11 — 15. He places it the day after the cure of the cen- 
turion's servant (or son) at Capernaum. Now, Matthew and 
John, who have related this cure, say nothing concerning the 
widow's son. Luke's motive for inserting the story seems to 
be the same as for inserting verse 21, viz., to make it appear 



IN THE FOUR GOSPELS. 279 

that John's disciples had ocular demonstration of the truth 
of the message they were to carry to him. In Matthew's 
account the mode of expression might be taken to imply this, 
for he makes Jesus say, in answer to the question of John's 
disciples, "Art thou he that should come, or do we look for 
another ?" — a Go and shew John again, airayyuXare Iwavvy, 
the things which ye do hear and see : (the present tense, a 
cikqvets kul (dXeirsrs :) the blind receive their sight, and the 
lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the 
dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached to 
them." Luke copies nearly all Matthew's account of this 
discourse concerning John, and adds, ver. 21, "And in that 
same hour he cured many of their infirmities, and plagues, 
and of evil spirits, and unto many that were blind he gave 
sight." All this mass of miracles, not noticed elsewhere, was 
plainly done, or said by Luke to be done, in order to make 
the words in Matthew, " which ye hear and see," literally true. 
Now, the raising of the dead at Nain, which Luke makes also 
to be done within the knowledge of John's disciples, com- 
pletes the list of miracles mentioned in the message, and has 
therefore the appearance of being inserted for that purpose. 
It seemed the more necessary, because Matthew had not 
given any account of raising the dead which could warrant 
such a message ; for although he, perhaps, had in his mind 
his own story of Jairus's daughter, yet Mark had prevented 
subsequent writers from citing this for the purpose, by saying 
that the disciples were commanded to tell no man of it. And 
it has been shown to be highly probable that Luke had both 
Matthew's and Mark's Gospels before him. 

The obvious objection to the reality of this miracle is the 
little notice taken of it. There are only three stories of 
raising the dead by Jesus, and this resurrection at Nain was 
better worth publishing than that of Jairus's daughter, since 



280 REMARKS ON THE OTHER MIRACLES 

it occurred in the open street, and the death was less doubtful. 
Matthew and Mark could not have forgotten or wilfully sup- 
pressed it, and consequently did not know of it. 

Raising of John alone relates the raising of Lazarus, which, 
Lazarus. 

if his account were true, was the most splendid 

and public of all the miracles. For, according to him, it was 

done before friends and enemies, without any of the usual 

prohibitions to tell of it : many came to see Lazarus at the 

supper at Bethany, and the people bare record of it when 

Jesus entered publicly into Jerusalem. 

But, notwithstanding all this, neither Matthew, Mark, nor 
Luke, appear to have had any knowledge of the affair; for 
not only are they silent concerning it, but their accounts do 
not easily admit of its introduction. John puts the supper, 
at which Lazarus sat after his resurrection, one day before the 
public entry into Jerusalem. But Matthew, as well as Mark 
and Luke, makes it appear that Jesus made his entry into 
Jerusalem on coming direct from Jericho, a distance of about 
twenty miles ; and that after this he took up his abode at 
Bethany. John's story of Lazarus requires, therefore, ano- 
ther previous abode at Bethany, which breaks in violently 
upon the order of events in Matthew, whose narrative seems 
to exclude the possibility of Jesus having already resided for 
some time so near to Jerusalem as fifteen furlongs. See 
Matt. xix. 1; xx. 18, 29; xxi. 1. 

The supper at Bethany, also, is related by Matthew long 
after the entrance, although he is not precise as to the date, 
xxvi. 6. 

This supper is proved to be the same as the one at which 
John says Lazarus was present, by the alabaster box of oint- 
ment, and the speech of Judas for the poor. Yet Matthew 
and Mark seem quite ignorant of that which John says at- 
tracted the Jews, the presence of the revived Lazarus. 



IN THE FOUR GOSPELS. 281 

The story of Lazarus seems again to be forced upon the 
attention of the first three Evangelists, when they relate the 
entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, and the conduct of the multi- 
tude ; for John says, that the people then bare record of his 
having raised Lazarus. But here also they make not the 
slightest allusion to it. 

It is impossible to conceive any plausible reason for this 
concealment,* when the same three Evangelists appear so 
willing to relate all the miracles they were acquainted with, 
and actually relate some which were said to be done in secret. 
That they had all forgotten this miracle so completely that it 
did not once occur to them whilst relating the connected cir- 



* The chief reasons which I have been able to find are, that the first 
three Evangelists studied brevity, and that they were afraid of exposing 
the family at Bethany to the persecution of the Jews. Schleiermacher 
says, " Only under one view does the omission of the raising of Lazarus 
and of the young man at Nain excite no surprise, but seem natural, that is, 
if we suppose that the first written accounts originated in the efforts and 
at the instance of persons who, not personally acquainted with Christ, and 
therefore not in the same sense his contemporaries (as the twelve) sought 
for circumstantial accounts, and aimed at perpetuating by writing the voice 
of oral tradition before it died away. For, on the one hand, these persons 
had less courage to apply to the apostles, who were busily engaged in the 
greater work of preaching and propagating Christianity, except in parti- 
cular cases on an extraordinary inducement, and rather sought out friends 
and hearers of the second class : on the other hand, they of course directed 
their researches principally to places from which they might hope for the 
most abundant harvest, that is, to Capernaum and Jerusalem. At the latter 
place, now, the most recent occurrences naturally left the deepest impres- 
sion on the memory of men ; and hence the portions of the three Gospels, 
which are common to them, consist chiefly of incidents from the different 
periods of Christ's stay at Capernaum, and his last stay at Jerusalem. 
What occurred at other places could not so easily form a part of their 
common stock." — Crit. Essay on Luke, vii. 11 — 50. A very laboured 
excuse ; for the raising of Lazarus was said to have occurred within half an 
hour's walk of Jerusalem, and shortly before the death of Jesus; and 
however modest or inattentive the writers might have been in their search 
for materials, it is hard to imagine how they could have avoided en- 
countering what must have been talked of by so many, if it had really 
happened. 



282 REMARKS ON THE OTHER MIRACLES 

cumstances, cannot be imagined; and if any miracle deserved 
a preference in the eyes of narrators disposed to do honour 
to Christ, or even to give a faithful account of him, it was 
this. 

The Acts and Epistles nowhere allude to this story, although 
it would have afforded Paul a very good instance of the resur- 
rection of the body. 1 Cor. xv. 35. 

The first mention, therefore, of the most public and decisive 
of the miracles, appears in a writing published at Ephesus 
sixty years afterwards; — a distance both of time and place 
which rendered it easy to publish fictitious statements with- 
out fear of contradiction. Supposing that Jesus had really 
visited the tomb of Lazarus, and told his sisters that he would 
rise again ; supposing, also, that the question had been raised, 
cc Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind, 
have prevented Lazarus from dying V we may imagine how 
great was the temptation, to a writer intent upon making his 
readers believe, to enlarge the incident, by a few additional 
sentences, into a convincing miracle. That the story was 
written with such a view appears throughout, xi. 15, " I am 
glad I was not there, to the intent ye may believe ;" — 27, " I 
believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God ;" — 42, " I 
said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me." And 
although much of the story appears very natural, some parts 
indicate an intermixture of fiction. The misapprehension of 
the disciples concerning the word " sleep," ver. 12, is, in the 
usual style of John, to enhance the effect of the subsequent 
answer or performance of Jesus. Mary's speech, ver. 32, on 
seeing Jesus, is in the same words as Martha's, ver. 21. 
Martha's first speech implies an expectation that Jesus will 
raise Lazarus,—" I know that even now whatsoever thou wilt 
ask of God, God will give it thee ;" but, on coming to the 
grave, she makes an objection to obeying the order of Jesus, 



IN THE FOUR GOSPELS. 283 

quite inconsistent with her previous expectation, but which 
renders the coming event more striking to the reader. The 
same applies to the weeping of Jesus ; it is the novelist's pre- 
lude to a bright denouement ; but in reality Jesus could not 
have felt so deeply distressed, when conscious of the joyful 
miracle which he was about to operate; nor can we allow 
that it was the effect of strong emotion combined with un- 
certainty, because the writer had intimated at the very out- 
set that Jesus knew assuredly what he was going to perform. 
Ver. 4 and 11, " This sickness is not unto death, but for the 
glory of God," — " I go that I may awake him out of sleep." 
Martha's confession of faith, ver. 27, is precisely the formula 
in which the author avows the object of his book at the end, 
viz. " believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God." 
" Which should come into the world " bears strongly the 
impress of the writer's own peculiar style. The narration of 
what Martha said to Mary secretly, and of what took place in 
the house, in the same tone as the account of what was done 
where Jesus was, betrays the inventor rather than the eye- 
witness ; for it can hardly be supposed that John went back- 
ward and forward to draw up a report of what happened at 
both places. The witness of a real event of such a kind 
could scarcely have refrained from entering into further 
particulars concerning the looks and words of Lazarus on 
receiving life again; but here the story stops short, as if 
the writer's purpose were accomplished in having related a 
miracle. 

It is "remarkable that the raising of Jairus's daughter, 
which was said to be performed in secret, is related by three 
Evangelists ; whilst the other two resurrections, which were 
said to be public, rest each on the testimony of one. The 
omission of an incident by one writer does not always 
invalidate the narration of it by another ; but, considering 



284 



REMARKS ON THE OTHER MIRACLES, ETC. 



the extreme importance of the last two miracles to the 
Christian cause, as well as their impressive nature, it does 
seem an insuperable objection that three out of the four 
Evangelists should have neglected or forgotten them. 



( 285 ) 



CHAPTER IX. 
GENERAL OBJECTIONS TO THE MIRACLES OF JESUS. 

I. He himself put his miracles of healing upon a level with 
the performances of the Jewish exorcists. Matt. xii. 27, 
" And if I hy Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your 
children* cast them out? therefore they shall be your 
judges." If his cures could not more fairly be attributed to 
Beelzebub than those of the Jews to whom he alludes, neither 
could they more properly be considered miracles. But it is 
only in the present age that such an inference excludes the 
miracle, because in Christ's own time the arts of healing and 
magic were supposed to be closely related, and Josephus 
speaks several times of the casting out of demons as per- 
formed by miraculous means, f 

II. He recognized the attempts of others as real miracles, 
making no distinction between them and his own. Mark ix. 
38, 39, "And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw 



* Apparently a class countenanced by the Pharisees, but their exact de- 
scription seems uncertain. " Per filios vestros videtur Christus intelligere 
Discipulos aliquos Pharisaeorum, hoc est, nonnullos e Judaeis, qui exorcismis 
usi videbantur Daemonia ejicere . „ . ." — Lightfoot. Medicine among the 
Jews was the province of the priests ; but from Josephus it appears that 
others assumed not unfrequently the office of exorcising. 

f It might be answered that Jesus here only uses an argnmentum ad 
hominem equivalent to this, " You Pharisees believe that your sons cast out 
demons by the Spirit of God, and ought not therefore to attribute my appa- 
rently similar cures to another agency. I know however that mine alone 
do really proceed from the Spirit of God." But to attribute this meaning, 
even in thought, to Jesus, is perfectly gratuitous ; the obvious sense is, that 
Jesus intends sincerely to strengthen his case by the examples in question ; 
and this is supported by the next objection. 



286 GENERAL OBJECTIONS TO THE 

one casting out devils in thy name, and lie followeth not us ; 
and we forbad him, because he followeth not us. But Jesus 
said, Forbid him not ; for there is no man which shall do a 
miracle in my name that can lightly speak evil of me." 
There have been many instances, in all ages of the church, of 
persons pretending to exorcise by merely using the name of 
some eminent saint or prophet; but no satisfactory proof of 
any thing miraculous is to be found in such stories, and in 
general they are considered undeserving of serious attention. 
Yet the performances of the pretender mentioned by Mark 
are no more questioned on the score of genuineness than 
those of Christ himself.* 

III. He admits that there was more difficulty in perform- 
ing some miracles than others. Matt. xvii. 21, " Howbeit 
this kind goeth not out, but by prayer and fasting." 

IV. He generally required to see that the applicants fully 
believed in his miraculous power before he attempted the 
cure. Matt. ix. 27, " Believe ye that I am able to do this V 3 
ix. 2, " Jesus seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the 
palsy," &c. Mark vi. 5, u And he could there do no mighty 
work, save that he laid hands upon a few sick folk, and healed 



* Middleton says, (in the Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers of the 
Early Church,) the Fathers allowed the power of casting out devils to both 
Jews and Gentiles, as well before as after our Saviour's coming. Justin 
Martyr says, " All devils yield and submit to the name of Jesus, when they 
would not to any other name of their kings, prophets, or patriarchs ; yet if 
any should exorcise them in the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, they would in like manner submit. For your exorcists, as well as 
the Gentiles, use this art in exorcising, together with certain fumes and 
ligatures." — Dial, with Trypho, part 2. 

" The Jews even now by this same invocation of the name of God drive 
away devils." — Irenaeus, 1. 2, c. 5. 

" If a man invoke by the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, the devils will obey, and do what they are commanded ; but if he 
translate those names, according to their meaning, into any other language, 
they will have no force at all." — Origen con. Celsum, 1. 5. 






MIRACLES OF JESUS. 287 

them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief." This 
throws much doubt upon the miracle ; for besides the physical 
influence which the belief itself might have, the applicant's 
own credit became in some degree pledged to vouch for its 
performance. When a man has solemnly protested that he 
believes a thing will happen, he is no longer a dispassionate 
observer, but he is ready to strain a point to make it appear 
that he was right. Thus those who had publicly declared 
their belief that Jesus could cure them, became in some 
measure interested parties ; so that between the real physical 
effect produced on them, and their own goodwill to make it 
appear greater, a bystander might easily be led to think a 
miracle had been done. But a divine power could not need 
such a belief on the part of the applicants ; on the contrary, 
one would rather expect it to be displayed where there was 
no such belief, in order that the miracle might be more 
indisputable. 

V. The answers usually given by Jesus were of such a na- 
ture as to dismiss the applicants without any injury to his 
own credit, whatever might be the result. Matt. viii. 13, 
" Go thy way, and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto 
thee." ix. 29, " According to your faith be it unto you." xv. 
23, "And his disciples besought him, saying, Send her away, 
for she crieth after us . . . 28, Jesus answered and said unto 
her, O woman, great is thy faith ; be it unto thee even as 
thou wilt." Mark x. 52, " Go thy way, thy faith hath saved 
thee." John ix. 7, " Go, wash in the pool of Siloam." 

VI. In Matthew and Mark, the more decided miracles, such 
as raising the dead, curing the blind, &c, are admitted to 
have been done in secret. Matt. viii. 4, " Jesus saith unto 
him, (the leper,) See thou tell no man, but go thy way, show 
thyself to the priest," &c. ix. 30, "And Jesus straightly 
charged them, (the blind men,) saying, See that no man know 



288 GENERAL OBJECTIONS TO THE 

it." Mark v. 43, " And he charged them straitly that no 
man should know it" (the raising of Jairus's daughter), vii. 
36, " And he charged them that they should tell no man" 
(the cure of a deaf and dumb man). It is generally added, 
that notwithstanding the secrecy of the affair itself, the report 
of it was soon published abroad. Now, since the best autho- 
rities, Jesus himself and those present, must have been silent, 
(for it can hardly be supposed that his immediate followers 
so boldly disobeyed him,) it may be fairly doubted whether 
the report, which by some means got abroad, was exactly true, 
and consequently whether the stories before us, founded pro- 
bably on these reports, (for in none of them do the writers say 
they were present, or name their authority,) are exactly true ; 
in which doubt we are obliged to bring in other considera- 
tions to help us to ascertain the real facts, as has been already 
attempted. The motive for Jesus's injunction of secrecy is 
supposed by some to be his fear lest the people should make 
him a king ; but it is remarkable that the only Evangelist 
who attributes this fear to Jesus, John vi. 15, relates chiefly 
miracles done in the most public manner, viz., the marriage 
feast, the feeding of the multitude, the raising of Lazarus, &c. ; 
from which it appears to have been at least his impression, 
that Jesus did not in general seek secrecy for his miracles. 
Matthew and Mark themselves relate abundance of miracles, 
of casting out demons, and healing the sick, as performed in 
the most public manner. The exception, therefore, in the 
cases alluded to, leaves them open to one or other of these 
objections : — either that Jesus required the secrecy because 
the miracle would not bear public inspection; or that the 
narrators, aware that the miraculous part was a later addition, 
endeavoured to make the whole appear consistent by saying 
that it was by Jesus's command that it had been kept 
secret. 






, MIRACLES OF JESUS. 289 

VII. The miracles were chiefly performed among the 
country people of Galilee, according to Matthew and Mark. 
The former says, in a loose manner, xxi. 14, " And the blind 
and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them." 
But with this exception, and that of the fig-tree, he gives no 
specific account of any one miracle from the arrival of Jesus 
at Jerusalem till his death. Thus, the miracles of Jesus agree, 
in one remarkable circumstance, with the majority of those 
related elsewhere; viz. they were performed among classes 
least capable of distinguishing between the natural and super- 
natural. 

VIII. When Jesus was asked to do a public miracle in at- 
testation of his divine mission, he not only refused to do it, 
but did not even appeal to his previous miracles. Matt. xvi. 
1 — 4, "The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and, 
tempting, desired him that he would shew them a sign from 
heaven. He answered and said unto them, When it is even- 
ing, ye say, It will be fair weather ; for the sky is red. And 
in the morning, It will be foul weather to-day ; for the sky is 
red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of 
the sky ; but can ye not discern the signs of the times ? A 
wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign ; and 
there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the pro- 
phet Jonas. And he left them, and departed." Nothing is 
said of the sign of Jonas in the corresponding place in Mark, 
viii. 11. A similar but more pointed application is related by 
John, vi. 30, "They said therefore unto him, What sign 
shewest thou, that we may see and believe ? What dost thou 
work ? our fathers did eat manna in the desert." The answer 
is an assertion, not of his miraculous power, but that he him- 
self is the bread of heaven. It is true that Jesus is made to 
appeal to his miracles in answer to John the Baptist's disci- 
ples, and several times in the discourses attributed to him by 



290 



GENERAL OBJECTIONS TO THE 



John, v. 36, x, 38, xiv. 10. Yet the above instances are suf- 
ficient to show that he did not usually rely upon them as the 
means of convincing opponents. Nor is it a sufficient answer 
that the applications were made to him in a captious spirit, 
and were therefore unworthy of notice. The demand of a sign 
or miraculous attestation has been acknowledged to be reason- 
able by all asserting the divine authority of Jesus after his 
own lifetime ; consequently, from the days of Matthew and 
John to our own, Christians have been eager to meet it with 
plentiful accounts of miracles. Moreover, Jesus himself did 
not pass over the demand on such a pretext. John ii. 18, 
" Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign 
shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things ? 
Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple," 
(they were in the temple at Jerusalem,) " and in three days I 
will raise it up." From the following verses it appears that all 
about him at the time understood him to mean the real tem- 
ple, and so Matthew and Mark seem to have understood it ; 
for they each twice quote the saying, without giving the least 
hint that it had any other sense. Matt. xxvi. 61, xxvii. 40 ; 
Mark xiv. 58, xv. 29. John alone says that Jesus meant the 
temple of his body, allowing, however, that it was only after 
he was risen from the dead that this sense was attributed to 
the words. Now, if this were the true version of the matter, 
that Jesus intended his answer to be unintelligible or decep- 
tive to the actual questioners, and convincing to his own 
disciples only after his death, he seems to have partially 
failed ; for two out of the three Evangelists, who have men- 
tioned the saying, appear to have been as much in the dark 
concerning its meaning as the Jews themselves. But if, like 
the latter, we take the saying in its obvious and literal sense, 
it shows that Jesus did not, on this occasion at least, object 
to the demand of a miraculous sign ; but by his meeting it 



MIRACLES OF JESUS. 291 

in this manner, rather than by doing a miracle, or by ap- 
pealing to some noted one already done,* snch as the raising 
of Lazarus, it is plain that the subsequent custom of refer- 
ring objectors to these miracles was not adopted by himself. 
Consequently the genuineness of those parts of his discourses 
which appeal to his miracles becomes liable to suspicion; 
especially since other considerations lead us to conjecture 
that both John and Matthew were in the habit of attributing 
to Jesus sayings merely representing subsequent ideas and 
doctrines. 

The demand of a sign, in attestation of a claim to the 
Messiahship, was far from unreasonable, according to current 
Jewish ideas.f Jehovah himself had prescribed this method 
of proof to Moses. His rod was to become a serpent, " that 
they might believe that the Lord God had appeared to him;" 
and if this did not convince, other signs were appointed, 
Exod. iv. 1 — 9. Elijah had brought down fire and rain 
from heaven; Elisha had raised the dead, multiplied oil, 
cured a leper, fed an hundred men with inadequate supplies, 
caused iron to swim, and smitten an army with blindness. It 
was expected that the Messiah would be accredited at least 

I equally with his predecessors. But Jesus replies, " no sign 
shall be given to this generation." This must have been 
* The clearing of the temple fixes the date of the conversation to the 
time after Jesus's last visit to Jerusalem. 

f Tanchum, fol. 54. 4. R. Acha said, " Whatsoever things God is about to 
do, those hath he already done by the hands of just men in the times of the 
Old Testament. God will raise the dead, which he hath already done by 
Elias, Elisha, and Ezekiel. He will dry the sea, as was done by Moses. 
He will open the eyes of the blind, which he did by Elisha, &c." 

It appears merely the performance of their duty, that the Sanhedrim 
should send a deputation to inquire into the nature of the authority claimed 
by persons assuming the guidance of the people : and if a divine authority 
were claimed, nothing could be more conformable to the spirit of the laws 
of Moses, than to require an indubitable miraculous attestation. 

u 2 



292 GENERAL OBJECTIONS TO THE 

understood, and justly, as declining to rest his title to the 
Messiahship on the ground of miraculous credentials. He 
might be aware that his expulsions of demons and other cures 
of healing were not sufficient to put forward as meeting the 
demand; but how could he have given this answer if he 
knew that he was commissioned to work miracles, in proof of 
his mission, fully as decisive as those of his supposed fore- 
runners ? " No sign shall be given to this generation," from 
the mouth of one who was to raise Lazarus and receive a 
voice from Heaven expressly as signs, would be both suicidal 
and false. But the whole is clear when we admit that, what- 
ever real occurrences might form the basis of the miraculous 
stories in the Gospels, these, being not unparalleled by the 
performances of other Jewish exorcisors,* could not furnish 
the required indisputable credentials of the Messiah : whereas 
the unrestrained legend might supply them in abundance, 
and would naturally overlook the inconsistency which this 
would occasion in reference to the above relic of the history 
of Jesus.f 

* Celsus probably gave the general opinion of the more educated classes 
in his time respecting miracles of healing, exorcising, &c, when he said 
that abundance of them might be seen in the streets for a few oboli. (Orig. 
adv. Cels., lib. i. § 68.) " If those things were even true, which are written 
about cures, and raising of the dead, and a few loaves feeding multitudes, 
and whatsoever things the apostles have magnified, yet he (Celsus) consi- 
ders them common by the side of the jugglers' performances, who promise 
things more wonderful still, and by the side of things executed by the scho- 
lars of Egyptians, who in the midst of the market-places, for a few oboli, 
sell their venerable lessons, expel demons, cure diseases, call upon the 
souls of heroes, show as sumptuous feasts, cates, and sauces, things which 
are not such, and put in motion as animals things not really animals, but 
appearing such by ocular deception. And he says; granting that they do 
these things, must we account them sons of God, or not rather conclude 
that these are the pursuits of wicked and unhappy men?" 

Paul seems to be conscious that arts of healing were of a comparatively 
low grade in the scale of divine gifts. 1 Cor. xii. 9, 28. 

f The writer of the first Gospel might have endeavoured to obviate this 
inconsistency as far as his own Gospel was concerned, by the addition, " but 



MIRACLES OF JESUS. 293 

IX. In most of the narratives, the saying of Jesus and the 
incidents leading to it form the most conspicuous part ; the 
accompanying miracle is but a brief echo. " I will, be thou 
clean ; and immediately his leprosy was cleansed." " Arise, 
take up thy bed, and go into thine house. And he arose, 
and departed to his house." "Thy faith hath made thee 
whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour." 
Therefore, in so far as the narrative preserves any historical 
reality, this most probably lies in the saying itself, and the 
circumstances which gave rise to it. The miraculous fulfil- 
ment, if true, would have formed the most impressive part of 
the incident, and would have been related with at least equal 
emphasis and circumstantiality with the previous portion. 
Take for instance the case of the Syrophenician woman, 
Matt. xv. 21 — 28. The incidents and dialogue are related 
with much force, and probably with a great degree of truth, 
including the final answer of Jesus, " O woman, great is thy 
faith : be it unto thee even as thou wilt." But here, the very 
point where the greatest interest begins instead of ends, we 
are dismissed with the careless completion, " and her daugh- 
ter was made whole from that very hour." How did the dis- 
ciples know this ? for the daughter was at a distance. What 
messengers arrived from the woman's house, or when did 
they meet the daughter, and learn the fact ? The absence of 
any means of information of this kind, which must have ap- 
peared worth relating, inevitably leads us to infer that they, 

the sign of the prophet Jonas." I incline to consider Mark's version, which 
omits this, the most probable ; because if Jesus did not predict his death 
and resurrection, the sign of Jonas in reference to this is evidently a later 
addition. And Jonas could not well be called a sign in any other sense, 
because he was merely to preach warnings to the Ninevites. Yet if so 
much were granted that Jesus had added the parallel between himself and 
Jonas, the above reasoning still applies, for it was still an evasion of the 
kind of sign which the Pharisees and Jewish expectation demanded. 



294 GENERAL OBJECTIONS TO THE 

or the intermediate narrators, learned this important conclu- 
sion simply by means of their faith in Jesus. He spake the 
word, therefore the thing must have so happened. 

In some cases, particulars are given of what followed the 
saying ; hut these we have seen do not confirm us in the idea 
that there happened any thing really miraculous, but rather 
the contrary. See chap. viii. p. 267. 

The cure of the nobleman's son, John iv., is only an appa- 
rent exception. For although it is said that the servants met 
the nobleman, and gave him a report of what had happened 
to his son, all this was out of the knowledge of the disciples, 
unless one of them had gone with the nobleman to obtain 
proof of the cure; which very circumstance would have 
formed an important incident in the real scene. We have 
here the omniscience of the novelist, instead of the one-sided 
or local knowledge which must belong to an eye-witness. 
The same remark applies to the story of the blind man, 
John ix. Who was this narrator, and where could he have 
been, that he knows so well the words and thoughts of so 
many actors in different places? An ingenious hypothesis 
might certainly explain how John could place himself in the 
way of beholding and hearing all that was essential to the 
story, whilst near Jesus, the man, his neighbours, parents, 
the Pharisees, &c. But nothing in the narrative indicates 
the movements of an active reporter of this kind ; the more 
obvious conclusion is one of these : either that the narrative 
proceeds from a dramatist, or from the Holy Spirit.* 

X. None of those on whom the miracles were said to be 
performed come forward themselves to attest them in the 



* The latter would doubtless be the solution of the writer himself: see 
John xiv. 25 ; xv. 26. But with the metaphysics of that time, the effect 
of imagination and the dictates of the Holy Spirit might be easily con- 
founded. The undoubted discrepancies in the Evangelists must destroy 



MIRACLES OF JESUS. 295 

subsequent part of the history, or play any conspicuous part 
in the affairs of the church, as gathered from the Acts and 
Epistles. The author of the Gospel of Nicodemus, which 
appeared at the end of the third century, has endeavoured to 
remedy the omission by making the centurion, the blind 
men, &c, give evidence before Pilate ; but this forgery only 
renders the absence of any historical testimony to the same 
effect the more striking. 

XI. None of the miracles produce any effect upon indis- 
putable historical facts ; but events go on in a natural course 
without the slightest symptom of supernatural disturbance. 
The Romans keep possession of Judea ; Jesus is put to death 
as an innovator; his followers increase like other sects, by 
means of proselytism. All the miraculous consists of mere 
accessory incidents, which may be shaken off without hurt to 
the integrity of profane history, or even to the chief features 
of the gospel history itself. The career of Jesus is intelligible 
enough, although none of the cures were really supernatural, 
although no water were turned into wine, nor any loaves 
multiplied. The earthquakes and darkness leave not the 
slightest vestiges in history.* The utmost political effect 

the hypothesis of a Holy Spirit as the communicator of historical facts. 
Paley quietly rests the question on the credibility and means of knowledge 
of the narrators. The doctrine of plenary inspiration would have rendered 
the greater part of his work unnecessary. 

* The elder Pliny and Seneca have each left a work recording all the 
great phenomena of nature, earthquakes, comets, eclipses, &c, which they 
could collect. Seneca Qusest. Natur., I. i. 15; vi. 1; vii. 17. Plin. His. 
Nat., 1. ii. But there is nothing applicable to the narrative of Matthew. 
Pliny describes a singular paleness of the sun in the year following the 
death of Caesar. 

Phlegon of Tralles (about A.D. 141), in a passage quoted by Eusebius, 
said that " in the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad (the 18th or 19th year 
of Tiberius, 32 or 33 A.D. according to common computation), there was 
an eclipse of the sun, the greatest of any known before. And it was night 
at the sixth hour of the day, so that the stars appeared in the heavens. 
And there was a great earthquake in Bithynia, which overturned many 



296 GENERAL OBJECTIONS TO THE 

attributed by the Evangelists themselves to the miracles of 
Jesus, is frequent alarm among the Pharisees, which if not 
overstated for the sake of dramatic interest, might very well 
proceed from other causes. It has been shown that the ad- 
herence of some followers by no means requires the admission 
of a real supernatural power. 

A miracle producing some effect which must have been 
noticed in the history of Judea, — the sudden dispersion of 
a legion, the removal of a procurator, the subversion of 
buildings, for instance — would have appeared to obtain some 
collateral support; although in such a case also we must 
have weighed the greater probability of natural or super- 
natural causes. But all the parts of the Gospel history con- 
firmed by cotemporary writers, the government of Pilate, the 
death of John the Baptist, the features of the Jewish sects, 
&c, are simply natural. Follow the vein of supernatural 
throughout, and it either shuns or breaks itself upon the 
historical strata. When the narrative brings Jesus into con- 
nexion with Herod the tetrarch, the former does not convert 
him by a miracle, or brave his power as an invulnerable 
prophet, but retires with his followers. At Jerusalem, no- 
thing occurs beyond a temporary enthusiasm of the multitude. 
The declaration attributed to him on his apprehension, that 
he could have obtained twelve legions of angels by prayer, 
only reminds us more forcibly of the absence of any collision 
of miraculous power with the powers of the world. 

houses in Nice." But Lardner, after a careful review of all that had been 
said on this passage, concludes both that Phlegon had no intention of 
alluding to the events accompanying Christ's passion, and that his passage 
cannot apply to them. Indeed the oldest objection is decisive, that an 
eclipse of the sun could not happen at the time of the passover, i.e. of the 
new moon. Heath. Test., ch. xiii. According to the calculations of some able 
astronomers referred to by Lardner (Dr. Sykes' Dissertation on the Eclipse 
of Phlegon), there was a great eclipse of the sun in November A.D. 29, in 
the first year of the 202nd Olympiad. 






MIRACLES OF JESUS. 297 

It is certainly not inconceivable that a divine power should 
have exerted itself only in such a manner, and on such occa- 
sions, as to avoid all contact with the political history of the 
time ; but this mode of exertion leaves the evidence destitute 
of a very important kind of proof. 

XII. The supposed miracles had no effect on many of 
those who lived in the time of Jesus, and were most capable 
of appreciating them. John vii. 5, " For neither did his bre- 
thren believe in him." xii. 37, "But though he had done so 
many miracles before them (the people), yet they believed 
not on him." Matt. xi. 20, " Then began he to upbraid the 
cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because 
they repented not." Mark vi. 52, "For they (the disciples) 
considered not the miracle of the loaves, for their heart was 
hardened." By comparing this with Mark xvi. 14, it is plain 
that the hardness of heart meant a backwardness to believe 
the miracle, although the account purports that it had just 
been done before them. Now, an imperfect belief imme- 
diately after the event, growing into certainty long afterwards, 
is just contrary to the process one would expect to see if a 
miracle had really been done. Then the conviction would be 
most vivid on the first sight of it. At first the senses declare 
unequivocally and impartially the impressions made upon 
them; but the memory seldom preserves long those impres- 
sions distinct and unmixed. Passion, prejudice, and interest, 
gradually diminish, add to, or confuse the image ; till, at last, 
the view remaining in the mind, instead of being a faithful 
picture of the real event, is one formed by the joint contri- 
butions of the memory, the imagination, and the feelings. 
Thus, from the instance referred to, it appears that even the 
disciples had some difficulty in believing the miracles at first; 
and since the disbelief of them came to be stigmatized as 
hardness of heart, we may infer that their more confident 



298 OBJECTIONS TO THE MIRACLES OF JESUS. 

assertion of them in later times was owing to a persuasion 
that scepticism on this point was a betrayal of the cause of 
their Master* 



* The object of this work being chiefly an examination of historical 
evidence, it does not enter into the arguments arising from general con- 
siderations concerning the nature of miracles, and their agreement or 
disagreement with the rest of the divine government. But lately some 
thoughts of this kind have been suggested to me, by an eminent writer of 
the present day, which deserve much attention. 

The improved science of modern times proves that disease and premature 
death are the penalties annexed to the abuse of men's powers, and are, in 
reality, a benevolent provision in order to restrict men to those limits which 
allow of their greatest moral and physical enjoyment. To remove the 
penalty in any individual case is so far a cancelling of the general divine 
law ; but to impart such knowledge as shall prevent the penalty from being 
incurred again, is consistent with it. 

It may be presumed that the different parts of the divine plans harmo- 
nize with each other, and, therefore, that credentials given by the Deity 
would not consist in infringements of his own laws. 

Christ, by raising the widow's son "at Nain, removed the natural penalty 
of the youth's own ill-regulated conduct, or that of his fathers. But if he 
had taken that occasion to make known the connexion established between 
imprudence and suffering, by explaining the causes which led to that young 
man's premature death, he would have acted in accordance with the divine 
laws, he would have saved many widows' sons from the same fate, and 
would have given a more permanent and convincing proof of his being a 
man sent from God. 

Most of the miracles attributed to Christ are of the same kind, viz. the 
removal of natural penalties. If, on opening the book which records his 
claims as a divine messenger, we were to find, instead of these stories of 
such difficult verification, declarations of the causes of blindness, fever, 
and palsy, and warnings to mankind to abstain from the courses which lead 
to such evils, the book would carry with it an evidence increasing with the 
lapse of ages ; since the possession of such knowledge by a person in the 
age, country, and circumstances of Christ, would be as miraculous as any of 
the works referred to : and all readers, on finding that the results of the 
most advanced stages of human knowledge had been anticipated by the 
peasant of Galilee, must themselves exclaim, " Whence had this man this 
knowledge, having never learned ?" and, " Rabbi, we know that thou art a 
teacher sent by God, for no man could have this wisdom unless God were 
with him." 

It is said that the moral teaching of Christ presents evidence of this kind, 
which subject will be considered. 






( 299 ) 






CHAPTER X. 

REMARKS ON THE MIRACLES IN THE ACTS OF THE 
APOSTLES. 

If the miracles attributed to Jesus himself be false, the same 
is likely to be the case with those attributed to the apostles, 
for they professed to derive whatever power they had from, 
him. Nevertheless, it is more satisfactory to examine such 
direct evidence as there is for these also. 

This evidence rests mainly on the testimony of the author 
of the Acts, who himself intimates that he is the same as the 
author of the third Gospel, and who has been supposed by all 
antiquity to be Luke the companion of Paul, a man of more 
education, as appears by his style, than most of the first dis- 
ciples. If he be the same as Silas, which there are some 
grounds for supposing,* it seems that he joined the church 
previously to the year 52 ; for Silas is first mentioned, Acts 
xv. 22, in connexion with Barsabas, as being a chief man 
among the brethren. Barsabas was one of those who had 
companied with the apostles in the lifetime of Jesus, Acts i. 
21 ; but it is unlikely that Silas (or Luke) had done so, 
because in his Gospel he only lays claim to having had his 
information from those who were eye-witnesses from the be- 
ginning, and not to have been an eye-witness himself. 
Therefore it is probable that neither was he an eye-witness 
of the transactions immediately after the death of Jesus; 
nor, indeed, till a short time before the council at Jerusalem, 

* See chap. v. 



300 REMARKS ON THE MIRACLES 

A.D. 52, since there are many chasms in his history pre- 
viously to that date. The events up to that time must there- 
fore be considered mainly as what the author had learned 
from others. Although there be not proof that he inserted 
fictions knowingly, yet from his relating the stories of the 
healing of Malchus's ear, and the angel in the garden, it 
appears at least that he was not in the habit of investigating 
closely stories brought to him, provided they appeared 
honourable to the common cause ; and it has been shown 
that he indulged in the practice common to the historians of 
his time, of inventing suitable speeches for his personages. 

It is plain from the Acts that the author himself took a 
zealous part in the affairs of the church, and it was therefore 
to be expected that he should share the prevailing disposition 
to do honour to the cause by publishing its miracles ; accord- 
ingly, almost every transaction has a miraculous turn given 
to it. When Stephen is condemned, he sees Jesus in the 
heavens ; when Philip goes to Gaza, it is by command of an 
angel of the Lord ; when he approaches the chariot of the 
eunuch, it is also by command of the Spirit ; and when he 
leaves him, he is caught away by the Spirit, and found at 
Azotus.* Before Peter and Cornelius meet, Cornelius has a 
vision to tell him to send for Peter, and Peter has a vision to 
prepare him for the message. The angel of Cornelius goes 
into such particulars as to give him the address of Peter at 
Simon the tanner's, which he might very well have learned 
from common report, or from any one of the Christians in 
Judea. When Paul reaches the coast of Asia opposite to 
Macedonia, a vision appears to him in the night to tell him 

* The distance from Gaza to Azotus is about thirty miles, a less journey 
than many of those performed by Jesus and the apostles ; so that the chief 
object of this miracle appears to have been to increase the faith of the 
eunuch, or of the readers of the Acts. 












IN THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 301 

to go over into Macedonia. When Herod dies of a disease, 

he is smitten by an angel of the Lord. 

In this last instance, we have the means of comparing 

Luke's account with that of another author, nearly cotem- 

porary. Josephus relates thus the death of Herod Agrippa : 

Antiq., book xix., chap, viii., sect. 2, " Now, when Agrippa had reigned 
three years over all Judea, he came to the city Cesarea, which was for- 
merly called Strato's Tower; and there he exhibited shows in honour of 
Csesar, upon his being informed that there was a certain festival celebrated 
to make vows for his safety. At which festival, a great multitude was 
gotten together of the principal persons, and such as were of dignity through 
his province. On the second day of which shows, he put on a garment 
made wholly of silver, and of a contexture truly wonderful, and came into 
the theatre early in the morning ; at which time, the silver of his garment 
being illuminated by the fresh reflection of the sun's rays upon it, shone 
out after a surprising manner, and was so resplendent as to spread a horror 
over those that looked intently upon him : and presently his flatterers cried 
out, one from one place and another from another (though not for his good), 
that he was a god : and they added, Be thou merciful to us ; for although 
we have hitherto reverenced thee only as a man, yet shall we henceforth 
own thee as superior to mortal nature. Upon this, the king did neither 
rebuke them nor reject their impious flattery. But, as he presently after- 
wards looked up, he saw an owl sitting on a certain rope over his head, and 
immediately understood that this bird was the messenger of ill tidings, as 
it had once been the messenger of good tidings to him ;* and fell into the 
deepest sorrow. A severe pain also arose in his belly, and began in a most 
violent manner. He therefore looked upon his friends, and said, ' I, whom 
you call a god, am commanded presently to depart this life, while Provi- 
dence thus reproves the lying words you just now said to me ; and I, who 
was by you called immortal, am immediately to be hurried away by death. 
But I am bound to accept of what Providence allots, as it pleases God ; for 
we have by no means lived ill, but in a splendid and happy manner.' When 
he said this, his pain was become violent. Accordingly he was carried into 
the palace ; and the rumour went abroad every where that he would certainly 
die in a little time. But the multitude presently sat in sackcloth, with their 
wives and children, after the law of their country, and besought God for the 



* When Agrippa was bound by order of Tiberius, an owl appeared on 
the tree against which he leaned ; and a German fellow-prisoner foretold 
to him that he would soon recover his liberty, but that, when the bird 
appeared again, he would only have five days to live. Antiq., xviii. 6. 



302 REMARKS ON THE MIRACLES 

king's recovery. All places were also full of mourning and lamentation. 
Now the king rested in a high chamber, and, as he saw them below lying 
prostrate on the ground, he conld not forbear weeping. And when he had 
been quite worn out by the pain in his belly for five days, he departed this 
life, being in the fifty-fourth year of his age, and the seventh year of his 
reign." 

Notwithstanding the owl, it is plain from this that there 
was nothing miraculous in the matter ; but it was very easy 
to relate the story in such a way as to make it appear so. 
Luke has done this more completely than Josephus, by pre- 
senting us with an angel instead of an owl, and by leaving 
us to suppose that Herod gave up the ghost immediately,* 
whilst it appears from Josephus that he was ill five days before 
he died. 

From an author thus evidently disposed to see ordinary 
occurrences in a miraculous light, capable of exaggerating, or 
of receiving the exaggerations of others, and also of calling in 
his own imagination to round off the discourses of his person- 
ages, marvellous stories must be received with much suspicion. 
It is not such testimony that can make us believe in contra- 
diction to our own experience of nature : and the greater 
part of the miracles in the Acts rest exclusively on such testi- 
mony ; for not one of the miraculous incidents there recorded 
is confirmed (it is doubtful if even alluded to) in the Epistles 
or other writings of the apostles. 

The first miracle, after the ascension, is the de- Tne g ift of 

tongues, 
scent of the Spirit in the shape of cloven tongues, 

like as of fire, on the day of Pentecost. The Jews believed 

that their prophets spoke and acted under the influence of a 

divine inspiration coming upon them on certain occasions, 

called the Spirit of the Lord, or the Holy Ghost. In the 

* Acts xii. 23, " And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, 
because he gave not God the glory : and he was eaten of worms, and gave 
up the ghost." 






IN THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 303 

prophet Joel, it is promised that, in the future greatness of 
Israel, in addition to peace and fertility of soil, the Spirit 
should be given abundantly. 

Joel. ii. 28, " And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out 
my spirit upon all flesh ; and your sons and your daughters shall prophecy, 
your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions : and 
also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour 
out my spirit. And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, 
blood and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into dark- 
ness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the 
Lord come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the 
name of the Lord shall be delivered ; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem 
shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the 
Lord shall call." See also Isaiah xliv. 3. 

The disciples, believing that their own times were those of 
the accomplishment of the prophecies, applied to their own 
society these promises of the spirit; In circumstances favour- 
able to excitement, at public meetings, on solemn occasions, 
at the baptism of new converts, and the like, the belief in 
and expectation of the influence was sufficient to bring the 
minds of some to a state of ecstacy, which was considered to 
be its actual manifestation ; in this state the agitation of the 
mind found a vent in certain incoherent expressions, which 
being supposed to be the outpouring of the Spirit, and yet, 
in fact, being unintelligible, were called an unknown language. 
These fits, natural in some, were soon imitated and improved 
upon by others, for the sake of attracting attention. Some 
words of real foreign, or kindred languages, having found 
their way into these rhapsodies, a report might easily be 
spread that the Holy Spirit gave the power of speaking in 
other languages. It is very probable that some excitement 
of this sort did take place at the assembly of the disciples on 
the day of Pentecost, and Luke has given the improved ac- 
count which came to him some years afterwards. The rush- 
ing mighty wind might be a real circumstance exaggerated ; 



304 REMARKS ON THE MIRACLES 

the visible tongues of fire a later addition ; the speech of the 
multitude, v. 7 — 12, the invention of Luke himself; and that 
of Peter what he considered Peter would have said on such 
an occasion, and which probably does in its main features 
represent Peter's sentiments correctly, since Luke (or Silas) 
must have often heard him. 

There is no evidence elsewhere that the apostles had ac- 
quired supernaturally the use of other languages. That ge- 
nerally spoken throughout the eastern provinces of the Roman 
empire was the Greek ; * and owing to the continual inter- 
course with Roman tax-gatherers and soldiers, even the lower 
classes of Jews dwelling in towns could not but acquire some 
rude knowledge of it. Campbell acknowledges that the Greek 
of the New Testament is a " barbarous idiom." f " The 
writings of the New Testament are such as, in respect of style, 
could not have been written but by Jews, and hardly even by 
Jews superior in rank and education to those whose names 
they bear." . . . . " The homeliness of their diction, when 
criticised by the rules of grammarians and rhetoricians, is 
what all the most learned and judicious of the Greek fathers 
frankly owned." "If any one contends," says Erasmus, J 
" that the apostles were inspired by God with the knowledge 
of all tongues, and that this gift was perpetual in them, since 
every thing which is performed by a divine power is more per- 
fect, according to Saint Chrysostom, than what is performed 
either in the ordinary course of nature or by the pains of man, 
how comes it to pass that the language of the apostles is not 
only rough and unpolished, but imperfect ; also confused, and 
sometimes even plainly solecising and absurd ? for we cannot 
possibly deny what the fact itself declares to be true. — When 

* Graeca leguntur in omnibus fere gentibus : Cicero pro Archia. 
f Dissertations, vol. i. p. 20. 
J Annot. in Act, x. 38. 



IN THE ACTS OE THE APOSTLES. 305 

the apostles write in Greek, they borrow much from their own 
Hebrew; as at this day, men of little learning, when they 
talk Latin, always mix somewhat with it of their native 
tongue." 

Origen says,* " The Jewish prophets and the disciples of 
Jesus renounced all artful composition of words, and what the 
Scripture calls man's wisdom, and fleshly wisdom." " But 
the apostles being sensible of their imperfection in this re- 
spect, and that they had not been educated in human learning, 
own themselves rude in speech, though not in knowledge." f 
Jerome says, % " There appear in Paul's Epistles several words 
peculiar to the dialect of his own city and country. We re- 
peat, that Paul spoke truly, and not by way of humility, 
when he called himself < rude in speech, but not in knowledge/ 
For his tongue is unable to express his deep and abstruse 
meanings. And feeling himself what he speaks about, he 
cannot transfer it to others' ears in clear language. Being a 
Hebrew of the Hebrews, and learned enough in his vernacular 
language, he was unable to express his deep meanings in ano- 
ther tongue, nor did he take much pains concerning words 
when he had made his meaning safe." § " In this place, (Col. 
ii. 23,) there is a superfluous conjunction ; which error we 
find the apostle to have committed in many places, owing 
to his unskilfulness in the rules of grammar." || "We do not 
attack the apostle when we notice his solecisms, but rather 
defend him, since we show that it must have been by the 
power of God, and not by grace of speech, that he evangelized 
the world. . . . He therefore who commits solecisms in his 
words, who cannot translate an inverted construction of words, 
and finish a sentence, boldly claims to himself wisdom," &c. If 

* Cont. Cels. t. vii. f Philoc. cap. iv. 

X Ad algas. § Hieron. in Gal. cap. vi. 

!) Ad algas. ^ In Eph. iii. 



306 REMARKS ON THE MIRACLES 

In tlie Epistle to the Corinthians, Panl says that he speaks 
with tongues more than they all ; so that it is probable that 
he possessed the gift in at least an equal degree with any of 
the other apostles or converts ; yet if the above testimony of 
Origen and Jerome can be trusted, his knowledge of Greek, 
the most necessary tongue, was no more than what might b e 
acquired by natural means by one in his station, certainly less 
perfect than what might have been expected to be given by 
divine inspiration. Moreover, though he does not absolutely 
condemn the exercise of this or any other supposed gift of the 
Spirit, he speaks of it on the whole in a depreciating manner. 
" I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that 
I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an un- 
known tongue," 1 Cor. xii. 10 ; and intimates pretty clearly 
that the gift was becoming an annoyance : " If, therefore, the 
whole church be come together into one place, and all speak 
with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned and 
unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?" v. 23. He 
says, that " tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, 
but to them that believe not ;" but he does not attribute to 
them the use for which Luke supposes them to have been 
given, viz. to preach to nations of other tongues. This silence 
of Paul, when treating expressly on the subject, leads us to 
think that no such use had been found to result from the sup- 
posed gift : consequently that the power was never given. 

The lame The cure of the lame man by Peter and John 
man. 

can be considered miraculous only on the strength 

of the statement that he had been lame from his birth, which 

was not easy for Luke to know in the case of a man forty 

years old. Many a beggar receiving alms on the score of 

lameness is yet able, in some degree, to use his legs when 

helped up, and on a sudden impulse. A similar story is told 

of Paul, ch. xiv. ; but here it is added that Paul looked at 



IN THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 307 

him, and perceived that he had faith to be healed ; which was 
probably the case also in the former instance. The whole 
story of the lame man, and of the subsequent examination of 
Peter and John, bears the appearance of the warm and 
coloured representation of the partizan, rather than the cool 
account of an impartial observer. The length and vigour of 
the speeches ascribed to Peter, who is said to be filled with 
the Holy Ghost, compared with the tameness and want of 
argument on the part of his opponents, shows too evidently 
a disposition to set off the apostle to advantage. Even though 
the man who had been healed were present, such men as 
Annas and the rulers would surely have been clever enough 
to find something to say against it ; but, according to Luke, 
the presence of the man confounds them, they send the 
apostles aside, and confer among themselves, saying, "What 
shall we do to these men ? for, indeed, that a notable miracle 
hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in 
Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it," This is more than a 
candid admission on the part of Annas and the council ; it is 
the exaggeration of a zealous defender of the apostles : for 
the miracle could not be manifest to all in Jerusalem ; and 
that it was a real miracle, no one was obliged to say, or could 
say properly, until the man had been further examined, and 
the nature of his previous lameness as well as the reality of 
his cure had been better ascertained. The confident and 
unaltered tone of Luke in relating what was said in the secret 
council, shows that he is here using the dramatic historian's 
privilege of attributing thoughts and speeches to his charac- 
ters ; and, as was to be expected, he turns it to good account 
>n behalf of the apostles. This appears in nearly all the 
speeches. The first question of the rulers is, " By what power, 
>r by what name, have ye done this ?" which is no more than 
a convenient introduction to Peter's oration concerning the 

x 2 



308 REMARKS ON THE MIRACLES 

power of the name of Jesus Christ of Xazareth. This con- 
clusion, "There is none other name under heaven given among 
men whereby we must be saved/' betrays rather the enlarged 
notions concerning Christ's dominion belonging to a com- 
panion of Paul, writing long after the admission of the 
Gentiles, than to Peter at such an early period, when he had 
as yet no idea that the Gentiles were to receive the word of 
God. The same thing appears more plainly in the former 
speech attributed to Peter, " Unto you first (i. e. the Jews), 
God having raised up his son Jesus, hath sent him to bless 
you/'' kc. Luke here evidently forgets that he had not yet 
arrived at that part of his history, where Peter, to the asto- 
nishment of himself and of those with him (Acts x. 34, 45), 
first found that others besides the Jews were to receive the 
word of God. 

Since Luke thus appears to embellish so freely in his ac- 
count of the speeches,* it is unavoidable to infer that he does 
so, in some degree, in that of the facts ; especially as they 
were, in this case, such as he had probably not witnessed 
himself. 
Ananias The storv of Ananias and Sapphira may be ac- 

and 
Sapphira. counted for, in great part, by the effect which 

spiritual terrors have been known to have upon persons both 
religious and weak-minded. The same ardour of faith, arising 
from the expectation of the coming of the Lord, which led 
the early church to acknowledge the necessity of giving up 
all temporal possessions, would render such terrors amongst 
them peculiarly strong; and upon minds which had under- 
gone a struggle between conscience and the natural love of 



* In these speeches, Acts iii. iv. 3 occur many of the most forcible testi- 
monies to the resurrection of Jesus. The above criticism confirms the view 
that these are to be considered rather as the testimonies of Luke, than of 
Peter himself. 



IN THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 309 

property, and remaining oppressed with the consciousness of 
duplicity, we can imagine that the menaces of the apostle 
must have fallen with tremendous effect. This, however, 
would hardly explain the death and burial of both parties 
within a few hours of Peter's speech; but here there may be 
an exaggeration similar to that in the case of Herod. Their 
death, happen when it might, would be supposed by the 
believers to be in punishment of their fraud upon the church, 
and the story would soon be told in such a way as to make 
the connexion clear. Simply in the natural progress of tra- 
dition, the most interesting points tend to approach each 
other without reference to date. The attempt to obtain the 
merit and privileges attached to an unqualified surrender of 
property, without honestly performing the condition, was 
such a dangerous example to a society living in common, 
that Ananias and Sapphira would appear fully to deserve 
their heavy doom, and the narrator would feel interested in 
depicting it in the most fearful colours. 

The release of the apostles from the common Release 

from prison, 
prison bears the appearance of fiction, from its 

being a perfectly useless miracle. It cannot be imagined 
that an angel, on releasing the apostles, would have the sim- 
plicity to send them to the temple, where they were so likely 
to be taken again, as we are told they were the next morning. 
The effect of the miracle is, that the apostles are not found 
where they had been left, but in another place. It is un- 
worthy of the divine power to suppose that it would choose 
to display itself by such a mere hide-and-seek affair. 

A more complete story of the same kind is told of Peter 
alone, Acts xii. James, the brother of John, having been 
put to death, Peter is imprisoned also ; but an angel appears 
to him in prison, his chains fall off, an iron gate opens of its 
own accord, Peter rejoins the disciples, the keepers next 



310 REMARKS ON THE MIRACLES 

morning are put to death, and shortly after Herod dies, ap- 
parently from the connexion, in consequence of his attempt. 
But the disposition to do honour to the apostles might have 
suggested this story as well as the former. "With the ex- 
ception of the escape of the child from Herod, and of Christ's 
passing through the crowd on the brow of the hill, it is the 
only instance in the New Testament of deliverance from ene- 
mies by miraculous means ; and it seems the more improbable, 
as Jesus is never represented as expecting such deliverance 
for himself or his disciples ; but, on the contrary, as warning 
them frequently that he and they must be delivered into the 
hands of men. "Wisdom and harmlessness were to be their 
means of escape from the midst of wolves, and not a mira- 
culous opening of prison-gates, Matt. x. 16. The emphatic 
tone of the warnings attributed to Jesus on this point, 
x. 17, 18; xxiv. 9, indicates strongly that the general expe- 
rience of the church had - recognised that their supposed 
miraculous powers were of no avail against superior human 
force. The fates of Stephen and James had furnished me- 
lancholy proofs of this. The story of Peter affords perhaps 
a confirmation rather than contradiction, since the angel is 
represented as coming secretly, and avoiding all collision with 
the authorities. Thus the story has the appearance of being 
the invention of some injudicious partizan, who in his desire 
to exhibit the triumphs of the church, forgot for a moment 
that they consisted really in the conquest of the minds and 
sympathies of men, rather than in miraculous escapes or 
physical invulnerability. 

Conversion The important miracle of Paul's conversion is 

of Paul. 

related thus : 

Acts ix. 3 — 19, "And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and 
suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven : and he fell 
to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Said, Saul, why persecutest 



IN THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 311 

thou me ? And he said, Who art thou, Lord ? And the Lord said, I am 
Jesus, whom thou persecuted : it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 
And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to 
do ? And the Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the city, and it shall 
be told thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed with him 
stood speechless, hearing a voice, hut seeing no man. And Saul arose from 
the earth ; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man : but they led 
him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus. And he was three 
days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink. And there was a certain 
disciple at Damascus, named Ananias ; and to him said the Lord in a 
vision, Ananias ; and he said, Behold I am here, Lord. And the Lord 
said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and 
inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus ; for behold he 
prayeth, and hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and 
putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight. Then Ananias 
answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath 
done to thy saints at Jerusalem : and here he hath authority from the chief 
priests to bind all that call on thy name. But the Lord said unto him, Go 
thy way ; for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the 
Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel : for I will shew him how 
great things he must suffer for my name's sake. And Ananias went his 
way, and entered into the house ; and, putting his hands on him, said, 
Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as 
thou earnest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be 
filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it 
had been scales ; and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was bap- 
tized. And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was 
Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus." 

The important point, that the men with Paul heard the 
voice, is contradicted in the speech attributed to Paul, 
Acts xxii. 9, for there he only says that they saw the light ; 
" And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and 
were afraid ; but they heard not the voice of him that spoke 
to me."* In this place, as well as the above, Paul is told to 
go into Damascus, where he will be told what to do, and 



* Luke has other instances of carelessness or forgetfulness with respect 
to his own narratives ; e. g. the 40 days after the resurrection, and the 
instance noticed, p. 308. In this he differs from the fourth evangelist, 
who shows evident effort to confirm himself. 



312 REMARKS ON THE MIRACLES 

Ananias there gives him his apostolic commission ; hut in the 
speech before Agrippa, xxvii., Jesus gives him this commission 
at once from the sky. The story is told thus in the latter 
place, no doubt to avoid a repetition of the minute details ; 
yet, strictly, the facts thus become at variance with the fore- 
going accounts, which shows at least carelessness in the 
manner of narrating. These inaccuracies of Luke, in his 
own repetitions of his story, lead us to suspect that there 
may be some inaccuracies in his first story itself, and that he 
has represented as real what Paul himself only intended to 
relate as a vision, adding a few particulars which he found 
necessary to make the account complete. The recovery of 
Paul's sight, ver. 17, 18, might be related almost in the same 
words if understood of spiritual blindness. The light from 
heaven, and the remonstrance of Jesus, also require but little 
alteration to restore them to a merely spiritual sense. But 
as Luke was not with Paul at the time, the chief merit of his 
version of the affair may belong to Barnabas, who appears to 
have been the first who related the story, ix. 27, and that on an 
occasion when he had a sufficient motive to lead him to strain 
the real facts into an evident miraculous interposition, viz. 
his desire to prove to the church at Jerusalem that his friend 
Paul had been duly commissioned by Jesus himself, and 
might therefore properly be introduced by him as a fellow- 
labourer with the other apostles. The testimony of Barnabas 
was readily received concerning a matter so honourable to 
the church, and probably received some additions afterwards 
from Paul's other adherents, who were naturally anxious to 
meet the objection that their leader had not seen Jesus. And 
from one of these we have the present story. 

The change in Paul's mind seems not unnatural. His 
first indignation against the innovating sect was appeased 
by the death of Stephen, and the subsequent persecution. 






IN THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 313 



On the road to Damascus he had leisure to reconsider their 
claims calmly. As a Jew, he himself expected the Messiah ; 
and as a Pharisee, he believed the resurrection of the dead. 
Why, then, might it not be true that Jesus of Nazareth had 
been proved to be the Messiah by his resurrection from the 
dead ? The disciples quoted many prophecies as fulfilled by 
Jesus, and he himself might remember others apparently 
accomplished by him. The idea once admitted, agitated him 
incessantly during the journey ; he must decide for or against 
Jesus before reaching Damascus; and during a faintness 
occasioned by the heat of the sun at noonday, he thought he 
saw and heard Jesus himself appealing to him. Upon a 
man of strong imagination, and much given to visions, 
2 Cor. xii. 1, it is not surprising that the impression made 
in such circumstances should be so strong as to influence his 
whole life. His energy of character permitted him to do 
nothing imperfectly. During the three years spent at Da- 
mascus and in Arabia, from the materials afforded by the 
Jewish prophets, and by his own meditations and visions, he 
formed an improved system of Christianity ; and, not con- 
tented merely to follow in the footsteps of the first disciples, 
he determined to proceed as a new and special apostle of 
the Christ or Messiah, to the conversion of the whole 
world. 

The speeches in the Acts cannot be relied on as Paul's 
own words ; for these we must look to his Epistles, and the 
following are the only passages which they contain, seeming 
to allude to the event near Damascus : 

Gal. i. 15 — 17, " But when it pleased God, who separated me from 
my mother's womh, and called me hy his grace to reveal his Son in me, 
that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred 
not with flesh and hlood : neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which 
were apostles before me ; but I went into Arabia, and returned again to 
Damascus." 



314 REMARKS ON THE MIRACLES 

1 Cor. ix. 1, " Am I not an apostle ? am I not free ? have I not seen 
Jesus Christ our Lord ? Are not you my work in the Lord ?" 

1 Cor. xv. 8, " And last of all, he (Christ) was seen of me also, as of 
one born out of due time." 

None of which bear out Luke's statement; for the ap- 
pearance of Jesus, on which Paul founds his claim to the 
apostleship, might be a vision, as there is reason to suppose it 
was in the case of James. See chap. vii. 

Earthquake The earthquake in the prison of Philippi has 

at Philippi. 

several marks of fiction. The keeper prepares 
to kill himself, before he knows whether the prisoners are 
fled or not. Paul guesses, in the dark, what the keeper is 
doing, and calls out in time to save him. This heathen 
keeper having obtained a light, addresses Paul and Silas with 
the very Christian phrase, " What must I do to be saved ? f) 
Moreover, the two prisoners' release is attributed, not to the 
earthquake, but to the order of the magistrates the next 
morning. In Paul's Epistle to the Philippians no allusion is 
made to this miracle. 






However trifling this kind of criticism may appear, the 
question of the miraculous origin of the Christian religion 
depends mainly upon it. Let it be granted that this doctrine 
ought not to be rejected at once on general arguments 
respecting the nature of miracles, but that the evidence for 
it deserves examination. If, after taking the pains to ex- 
amine, each one of the miraculous incidents appears resol- 
vable, and most probably so, into a pious fiction, a full-grown 
tradition, or a poetical legend, few metaphysical arguments 
can be found strong enough to restore plausibility to the 
doctrine. 

But in studying the book of Acts, it is impossible not to 
see things which contributed much more effectually than any 






X 



IN THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 315 

miracles or tales of miracles to the growth of the religion. 
The active missionary historian transports us by his earnest 
narrative into the midst of the infant sect. We see the 
inward workings, the intense animation, the joyful strag- 
glings, of one of those societies, which from time to time, by 
launching forth some new principles, or new forms of old 
principles, enliven mankind. The powers of the mind in 
addition to, and superior to those which suffice for the com- 
mon current of human affairs, which in isolated individuals 
find a vent in comparatively inefficient musings or aspirations, 
when at last awakened simultaneously in bodies of men, 
impel into action with a force which no established forms, 
laws, or usages, can ultimately resist. If there be in the ex- 
citing ideas a preponderance of truth, or of what harmonizes 
with the more generous emotions, a society small in its be- 
ginning, and low in its station, possesses a tremendous 
power ; and the Pharisees and Sadducees of the day are soon 
compelled to adopt the advice of some wiser Gamaliel, to let 
these men alone. The lower classes probably more than the 
higher, are the fit agents for effecting these moral revolutions, 
from their being less enslaved by artificial habits of action 
and thought. In the early church we recognize much that 
awakens enthusiasm in all ages ; the mental enlightenment 
once the heritage of a few, is to be common to all \ the gifts 
of the Holy Spirit, which aforetime were shed only on special 
prophets, are now poured abundantly on all flesh, and all the 
sons and daughters of the spiritual Israel may hope to share 
in some degree the inspiration of David and Isaiah. The 
expectations of former times are about to be fulfilled. A 
state of brotherhood is to prevent individual want. The 
farthest isles of the Gentiles are to share in the new light. 
And all imperfections of existing institutions are to be reme- 
died by an approaching restitution of all things, a Messiah's 



316 REMARKS ON THE MIRACLES. 

kingdom which popularizes the chief objects of desire, and 
acknowledges as the truly opulent those who are rich in faith 
and good works. The Hebrew recollections with which all 
this was clothed increased the force of the ideas to the church. 
The supernatural tales and visions with which their progress 
was embellished, might serve as accessory stimulants ; but 
with or without them we can see enough to explain how 
numbers might be led to join those whom they had at first 
persecuted, and to count all things loss for the sake of the 
cause which was called that of Christ. 



( 317 



CHAPTER XI. 

ON THE EVIDENCE AFFORDED TO THE MIRACLES BY THE 
APOSTOLIC WRITINGS. 

Paley admits (Evid., part iii. ch. v.), that the apostles ap- 
pealed less frequently than he himself should have done to 
the miracles, and he attributes this to the want of a due 
appreciation of miracles in that age, owing to the general 
belief in magical agency. But the excuse is insufficient. 
The church of Rome, whilst denouncing practisers of witch- 
craft, has been eager enough to set forth its own miracles. 
The Jews who believed in the magical acts of Pharaoh's 
magicians, were not the less forward to celebrate the miracles 
of Moses ; and the disciples, if not admitting the absolute 
conclusiveness of a miracle as a divine credential, were yet 
well aware of its great value. For they admit that the Jews 
frequently required a sign, and the fourth Evangelist makes 
Jesus say, " Unless ye see wonders and signs, ye will not 
believe." 

The four Gospels and the Acts were written at a com- 
paratively late period, viz. forty years and upwards after the 
death of Christ, or a distance of time varying from ten to 
forty years after the events recorded. But most of the 
Epistles were written earlier, whilst the apostles were ad- 
ministering the affairs of the church, and consequently in the 
midst of the miraculous period. Moreover, in these writings, 
at least in the Epistles of Paul, John, James, and the first of 
Peter, we may fairly calculate upon having very nearly these 
apostles' own words. Let us collect all the passages in these 









318 ON THE EVIDENCE AFFORDED TO THE 

Epistles which seem to allude to the miracles of Jesus or of 
his disciples. 

Rom. xv. 17 — 19 : " I have therefore whereof I may glory through 
Jesus Christ, in those things which pertain to God. For I will not dare 
to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought hy me, to 
make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed, through mighty signs and 
wonders by the power of the spirit of God." 

1 Cor. ii. 4 : " And my speech and my preaching was not with en- 
ticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of 
power." 

1 Cor. xii. 8 — 10: " For to one is given, by the spirit, the word of 
wisdom ; to another, the word of knowledge, by the same spirit ; to 
another faith, by the same spirit ; to another, the gifts of healing, by the 
same spirit ; to another, the working of miracles ; to another, prophecy ; 
to another, discerning of spirits ; to another, divers kind of tongues ; to 
another, the interpretation of tongues." 

Ver. 28 : " And God hath set some in the church ; first, apostles ; 
secondarily, prophets ; thirdly, teachers ; after that, miracles ; then, gifts 
of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues." 

2 Cor. xii. 12 : " Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among 
you in all patience, in signs and wonders, and mighty deeds." 

Gal. iii. 5 : " He, therefore, that ministereth the spirit, and worketh 
miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing 
of faith?" 

There are no allusions to miracles in the Epistles of James, 
John, Jude, or the first of Peter. In the second, or doubt- 
ful* Epistle of Peter, there is an allusion to the prophecy of 
Peter's death, and to the transfiguration. But the word of 
prophecy is said to be " more sure." 

The above passages in Paul's Epistles show that the church, 
in general, valued miracles as divine credentials, but they 
are insufficient to prove that any had been really wrought ; 
for — 



* The testimony of Eusebius seems almost enough to stamp this Epistle 
as spurious, since it appears incredible that the early church should have 
hesitated to receive any real writings of the chief apostle. Nevertheless, 
it may be appealed to as assisting to show the opinions of the early 
Christians. 



MIRACLES BY THE APOSTOLIC WRITINGS. 319 

I. Not one instance of a miracle is cited ; which is extraor- 
dinary in such a large collection of letters to the commu- 
nities amongst whom they were supposed to have been 
frequent; the subject of miracles being occasionally intro- 
duced, and Paul being in the habit of frequently appealing 
to facts within their own knowledge. For instance, he re- 
minds Timothy of the afflictions he met with at Lystra, but 
never alludes to the healing of the lame man there. The ill 
health of Trophimus is mentioned, and also that of Timothy, 
but none of the miraculous cures at Ephesus or Melita. 
Although Epaphroditus was " sick nigh unto death," 2 Phil, 
ii. 27, Paul seems never to have thought of healing him by 
miraculous means, but uses language applying to a natural 
recovery. " The Lord had mercy on him." Some of these 
sicknesses of most faithful companions might have been ex- 
pected at least to call forth some expressions of regret at the 
absence of the usual miraculous power, if Paul had really 
experienced it to be such. He cites his escape from Damas- 
cus in a basket, 2 Cor. xi. 33, thus confirming Acts ix. 24 ; 
but never alludes to any miraculous escape of himself, or of 

tthe other apostles. All this certainly amounts only to ab- 
sence of a particular kind of proof; but it is that important 
kind, viz. incidental allusion and confirmation, which in 
Paley's Horse Paulinse is so ably shown to support a great 
portion of the apostolic history. 

2. The low rank in which Paul places miracles appeal's 
inconsistent with the supposition that those of which he 
speaks were real and indisputable ones. A manifest sus- 
pension of the laws of nature must be one of the most 
impressive events that could happen to men of any age or 
country ; and persons commissioned to command or declare 
such suspensions from time to time could hardly fail to be 
regarded, in any society, with the highest degree of reverence 



320 ON THE EVIDENCE AFFORDED TO THE 

ever paid to men j yet Paul speaks of the Corinthian miracle- 
workers in this depreciating manner, — " thirdly, teachers ; 
after that, miracles/' &c. The only explanation seems to be, 
that he knew that the performances in question were far 
from being clear miracles, and would not bear to have much 
stress laid upon them. Hence, although he himself did not 
wholly reject the pretensions in question, and was willing 
that they should contribute as far as they might to the ser 
vice of the church, he urges the Corinthians to seek after 
gifts, which he was conscious might be claimed with less 
danger of discredit. 

3. It appears that Paul's claims to the apostleship were 
resisted by a party strong both in numbers and influence, 
although, according to his own account, he had wrought all 
the signs of an apostle, including wonders and mighty deeds. 
Yet in 2 Cor. xi. xii., where he asserts his claim to be con- 
sidered one of the chiefest apostles most forcibly, he makes 
very little use of his miracles ; and when speaking even of 
his adventures at Damascus, does not mention the miracle of 
his conversion, which would have supplied a most pertinent 
argument. He urges his descent from Abraham, his labours 
in the church, his sufferings, his visions, his working the signs 
of an apostle in all patience, " in signs, wonders, and mighty 
deeds/' in supporting his claim; but to that remarkable 
event, which his followers in the church afterwards considered 
to be the best foundation of his apostleship, the appearance 
of Jesus to him from the heavens, he himself, when he seems 
to have most need of it, makes no appeal. Moreover, the 
citation of the signs of an apostle wrought by him is added 
when he has nearly concluded the subject, and apparently as 
a subsidiary argument. 

Upon the whole, the notices of the miracles found in the 
apostolic writings are too scanty to agree with the reality of 









MIRACXES BY THE APOSTOLIC WRITINGS. 321 

such numerous and striking miracles as are recorded in the 
Gospels and the Acts. Such miracles, whilst yet in the eyes 
and ears of men, must have formed a constant topic of dis- 
course ; and, although much of the Epistles is argumentative 
and hortatory, we should have expected that some allusions 
to the miraculous as well as to the ordinary occurrences 
within the knowledge of the persons addressed, would have 
found their way into them. 






The lower classes in every age and country, owing to their 
less acquaintance with physical science, are disposed to see 
special interventions in ordinary events, and receive miracu- 
lous tales readily ; but about the time of Christ, even grave 
historians, both Greek and Roman, admitted such tales into 
their most finished compositions. Amongst the Jews, espe- 
cially, the national temper, creed, and low degree of scientific 
attainments, promoted the taste for the miraculous; conse- 
quently, their accomplished historian Josephus, although 
obviously checked by his fear of the Roman philosophical 
world, and without any other apparent motive than a pure 
love of the marvellous, could not resist the temptation of 
introducing abundance of miraculous stories. The historians 
of the early reformed Jewish, or Christian, churches, were 
inferior to Josephus in education and literary attainments, 
wrote under stronger excitement, had in view the interest 
and honour of their own newly-risen sect, and apparently 
intended their works for the use of their brethren, who were 
influenced by the same feelings and opinions as themselves. 
It was to be expected, then, that these histories should con- 
tain a larger proportion of the miraculous than that of Jose- 
phus. And as it would be thought very harsh to condemn 
Josephus as totally unworthy of credit, aud to throw aside 
his history because he partook somewhat of a vice peculiar 



322 



ON THE EVIDENCE AFFORDED TO THE 






to his age and country, so may we also look indulgently upon 
the inaccuracy or credulity of the evangelic historians, — 
venerate their compositions as the chief remaining records 
of the rise of that pure and intrepid sect which has revolu- 
tionized the moral world, — admire the highly-wrought feel- 
ings and imagination which could enliven Patmos with a 
glimpse of the kingdom eternal in the heavens, refreshing 
the common-places of the world with visions unspeakable, 
and with angels ascending and descending amongst the sons 
of men, — and respect even their recognized fictions as being, 
not attempts at gross fraud and imposture, but the aberrations 
of zeal for an honourable cause, or as exhibiting that tinge 
of romance which times and events of interest almost un- 
paralleled in history had disposed the minds of men to infuse 
into the realities of life. 

To traverse the evangelic writings, exposing their weak 
points, and throwing down successively, with the apathy 
of mere criticism, fictions consecrated by the authority of 
ages, is a harsh and ungracious task ; and it is only a belief 
in the expediency of reducing such tales to their due estima- 
tion in the opinion of mankind, that can induce minds accus- 
tomed to venerate them to enter willingly upon the destruc- 
tive process. The cause of progressive mental improvement 
may at length require that such narrations should be placed 
amongst the things of romance rather than of history : but 
this being done, the imagination may still delight itself by 
contemplating them in what now appears to be their true 
and proper light ; and the more freely, from its being now 
unchecked by the necessity of explaining and reconciling 
those absurdities and inconsistencies which must belong to 
them when viewed as matters of fact. Many of the finer 
thoughts and feelings of mankind find a vent in fiction, 
expressed either by painting, poetry, or the poetic tale; 



MIRACLES BY THE APOSTOLIC WRITINGS. 323 

and the perception of historical inaccuracy does not prevent 
our sharing the thoughts and feelings which have embodied 
themselves in this manner. The monotheist of the present 
day feels awakened in himself the conceptions of the beauti- 
ful belonging to ancient Greece, when viewing the varied 
and graceful forms of the council of Olympus : the Protestant, 
who regards monachism as a social evil, and who sees amongst 
the fathers of the church men of character and claims worse 
than doubtful, may yet appreciate the feeling which led men 
to tread in cloistered cells as on holy ground, and to attribute 
supernatural influence to the relics and images of martyrs 
and saints : and the critical inquirer, who sees in the mother 
of Jesus merely the obscure Jewish matron, may yet com- 
prehend the mixture of devotion and chivalry which gradually 
raised homage into adoration, and depicted her with the 
placid and majestic features of the Virgin Mother of God. 
In like manner, whilst recognizing the true character of the 
evangelic fables, we may still discover in them and share the 
feelings from which, for the most part, they sprung, — respect 
and attachment towards a character of unwonted power and 
excellence. A rude age expressed its perception of moral 
ascendancy by decking it with those ornaments which were 
then considered to be its appropriate and deserved accom- 
paniments, — miracles, wonders, and signs ; the followers of 
the Reformer of Galilee endeavoured to express their own 
sentiments towards him, and to excite the same in others, by 
attributing to him the command over nature, and by repre- 
senting him as ascending to the right hand of God. The 
modern observer has learned to distinguish more correctly 
the boundaries of the moral and physical worlds, and can 
appreciate superiority in the one, without ascribing to it an 
extraordinary control over the other. Nevertheless, he may 
be able to understand, feel, and translate the rude but em- 

y2 



324 

phatic language of former ages ; and, in the delineations of 
Jesus healing the sick, stilling the tempest, walking on the 
sea, or transfigured on the mount, may contemplate a fact of 
no small interest or importance, viz. the deep and solemn 
reverence which mental and moral power, unassisted by 
grosser means of influence, had been able in a remote age 
and country to inspire, and may thus refine the false glare of 
the miraculous thrown around Jesus into a more serene and 
steady light. 






( 325 ) 



CHAPTER XII. 

ON THE PROPHECIES. 

Some of the incidents in the life of Jesus appeared to agree 
with detached sentences in different parts of the Jewish Scrip- 
tures. This confirmed the belief of his disciples, that he was, 
as he claimed to be, the Messiah whom those Scriptures fore- 
told. And returning to them with this prepossession, they 
were able, by straining the facts a little on one side, and the 
meaning of their Scriptures on the other, to find in almost 
every page some fresh coincidences. A new and intense 
interest was thus imparted to the revered but familiarized 
writings; words and sentences, fallen through the lapse of 
time into dry forms, were vivified by the discovery of a mys- 
terious connexion with present things; coincidences the most 
doubtful were magnified into fulfilled prophecies ; and imagi- 
nation found abundance of connexions which common sense 
alone would never have discovered. 

From the confidence and frequency with which the apostles 
directed inquirers to search the Scriptures for the evidence of 
the Messiahship of Jesus, it seems clear that they relied upon 
the fulfilment of prophecy as their strongest argument.* 



* The comparative infrequency of the appeals to miracles proves that 
they were less relied on. This neglect of the miracles is the more remark- 
able, since it is evident that the apostles needed all the arguments they 
could find, many of the Jews themselves resisting the evidence of prophecy, 
Acts xiii. 45 ; xix. 9 ; xxviii. 24. A tacit, although unintentional, slight 
seems to be cast upon the evidence from miracle by Irenaeus, when he says 
that he who laboured amongst the Gentiles had a harder task, because they 
had not the Scriptures, and that the faith of the Gentiles was more generous. 
See note, page 88. 



326 ON THE PROPHECIES. 

Luke xxiv. 25 — 27 : " Then he said unto them, 
heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken ! Ought not Christ to 
have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory ? And beginning at 
Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scripture 
the things concerning himself." 

John v. 39 : " Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal 
life, and they are they which testify of me." 

Acts iii. 18: "But those things which God before had revealed by 
the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so 
fulfilled." 

xvii. 2, 3 : " And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, (the Jews 
of Thessalonica,) and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the 
Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered, and 
risen again from the dead : and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is 
Christ." 

Ver. 11 : "These (the Jews of Berea) were more noble than those of 
Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, 
and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so." 

See also Acts ii. 16 ; iii. 22—24 ; vii. 52 ; viii. 35 ; x. 43 ; xiii. 27, 32, 
33 ; xviii. 28 ; xxvi. 22, 27; xxviii. 23 ; Luke xxiv. 44, 45 ; John v. 46, 47 ; 
1 Cor. xv. 3, 4, &c. 

These arguments of the apostles were addressed chiefly to 
Jews. But since we are able to read the Jewish Scriptures 
as well as the Jews of that time, we can put ourselves into 
the same position for feeling and appreciating the force of an 
argument on which the apostles laid so much stress. Let 
us, then, for a time imagine ourselves in the place of the 
Jews of Berea, and follow the apostle's urgent exhortation to 
search the Old Testament whether these things were so, i.e. 
whether Jesus of Nazareth was he of whom Moses and the 
prophets wrote. 

Let us first examine all the passages which the apostles 
and evangelists themselves have quoted. 

Matt. i. 23 : " Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was 
spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold a virgin shall be with 
child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, 
which being interpreted is, God with us." 

Isaiah vii. 14 : " Therefore the Lord himself shall give you 



ON THE PROPHECIES. 327 

a sign ; Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and 
shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he 
eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. 
For before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose 
the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of 
both her kings." From ch. viii. 3, 4, it is plain that the 
writer is speaking of his own child. 

Matt. ii. 6 : " And thou, Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the 
least among the princes of Juda ; for out of thee shall come a governor that 
shall rule my people Israel."* 

Micah v. 2 : " But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou 
be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall 
he come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel, whose 
goings forth have been (or are) from of old, from everlasting." 
In verse 6, this personage " shall relieve us from the Assy- 
rian;" and in other respects the description does not agree 
with Jesus, who never ruled Israel. 

Matt. ii. 15 : " And he was there until the death of Herod : that it might 
be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of 
Egypt have I called my son." 

Hosea xi. 1 : " When Israel was a child, then I loved him, 
and called my son out of Egypt."f 

* See note *, page 110. 

f The manifest absurdity of supposing that these texts could have any 
reference to Jesus has led to the opinion that Matthew only intended to 
quote them by way of illustration or accommodation. But this was very 
different from what the church usually meant by saying that the Scriptures 
were fulfilled ; and there is every appearance that the phrase " then was 
fulfilled," in Matthew, was intended to have the same kind of meaning as 
that which Peter and Paul gave to their quotations when they argued from 
the fulfilment of prophecy. It does, indeed, seem impossible that any one 
who examined the context could seriously intend to represent these passages 
as prophecies fulfilled by Jesus ; but the probability is that Matthew never 
thought of this kind of critical inquiry. His incorrectness of quotation 
seems to show that he did not even take the trouble to refer to the passages 
in question, but quoted them from memory. The Jews had given him 



828 ON THE PROPHECIES, 

Matt. ii. 17 : " Then (on the slaughter of the infants) was fulfilled that 
which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, In Rama was there a 
voice heard, lamentation and weeping, and great mourning ; Rachel weeping 
for her children." 

Jerem. xxxi. 15 : u Thus saith the Lord, A voice was heard 
in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping 
for her children, refused to be comforted for her children 
because they were not. Thus saith the Lord, Refrain thy 
voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears, for thy work 
shall be rewarded, saith the Lord, and they shall come again 
from the land of the enemy." The writer speaks of the 
return of the Jews from captivity, during which, the land of 
Israel, represented under the name of Rachel their ances- 
tress, wept for the loss of her children, the Jews. 

Matt. ii. 23 : " And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it 
might be fulfilled which was spoken of the prophets, He shall be called a 
Nazarene." 

This is not to be found in the Old Testament. The passage 

most resembling it is Judges xiii. 7, " For the child shall be 

a Nazarite to God," spoken of Samson.* 

Matt. iii. 2 : " For this (John the Baptist) is he that was spoken of by 
the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Pre- 
pare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." 

Isaiah xl. 3 : This verse is part of a joyful exhortation to 

the Jews on their return from captivity. The protection of 

their God then became evident, and they are therefore told 

" to behold their God." 

Matt. iv. 13 : " And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, 
which is upon the sea coast in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim ; that 
it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, The 

the example of applying the Scriptures to the Messiah, in defiance of 
common sense ; and there is some evidence that they had so applied 
Hos. xi. 1. 

* See note f, page 110. 



ON THE PROPHECIES. 329 

land of Zabulon and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond 
Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles ; the people which sat in darkness saw 
great light ; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, 
light is sprung up." 

Isaiah ix. 1 : " Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such 
as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted 
the land of Zebulon, and the land of Naphtali, and afterward 
did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond 
Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. The people that walked 
in darkness have seen a great light : they that dwelt in 
the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light 
shined."* 

The passage seems to be part of a description of the times 
of Josiah. Compare Is. viii. 19 to ix. 7, with 2 Kings xxiii. 
24, 25. Josiah extirpated the familiar spirits, wizards, and 
idols, " and like unto him was there no king before him that 
turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, 
and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses ; 
neither after him arose there any like him." The passage in 
Isaiah urges the people to leave the wizards and familiar 
spirits, and to seek the law and testimony : it tells them that 
a great light hath shined upon them as they walk in dark- 
ness ; that unto them a child is born, and the government shall 
be upon his shoulder, (Josiah was only eight years old when 
he began to reign,) that " his name shall be called Wonder- 
ful, Counsellor, The mighty God,f &c, and that of the in- 

* Grotius supposes the light affliction to be the transportation of the 
inhabitants of Naphtali, Galilee, Ijon, and several other cities, by Tiglath- 
pileser, 2 Kings xv. 29 ; the more grievous affliction to be the captivity of 
Israel under Salmaneser, 2 Kings xvii. and xviii. ; and the child to be 
Hezekiah. 

t The word God, perhaps, formed only one syllable of the name in 
Hebrew, as in Immanuel, or God with us. Grotius conjectures that instead 
of " counsellor, the mighty God," we should read "a consulter of the 
mighty God." This would agree with either Hezekiah or Josiah, who both 
turned to the Lord with all their heart. 



330 ON THE PROPHECIES. 

crease of his government and of peace there shall be no end, 
upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to order it, 
and to establish it with judgment and with justice." The 
excess of panegyric affords ground for conjecturing that the 
passage was written in the time of Josiah. It will be shown 
that the book of Isaiah contains, probably, many fragments 
written at different times. 

Matt. viii. 16, 17 : " And healed all that were sick : that it might be ful- 
filled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our 
infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." 

Isaiah liii. 4 : " Surely, he hath borne our griefs, and car- 
ried our sorrows : yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of 
God, and afflicted." "Whoever be the personage intended, it 
is plain that Matthew has not only quoted incorrectly, but 
given quite a different sense to that of the writer of Isaiah ; 
for the latter speaks of the sorrows undergone by the person 
himself, — Matthew, of the infirmities and sicknesses which 
Jesus removed from others. 

Matt. xii. 18 : " Behold my servant, whom I have chosen ; my beloved, 
in whom my soul is well pleased : I will put my spirit upon him, and he 
shall shew judgment to the Gentiles," &c. 

Isaiah xlii. 1 : This is a description of Israel or Jacob under 
the name of the Lord's servant. See chap. xli. 8 \ xlii. 19, 
25; xliii. 1. 

Matt. xiii. 14 : " And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which 
saith, by hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand ; and seeing ye 
shall see, and shall not perceive," &c. 

Isaiah vi. 9 : The writer is here describing the inattention 
of the people to their prophets, from the death of Uzziah to 
the captivity. Ver. 1 — 11. 

Matt. xv. 7 : "Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophecy of you, saying, 
This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me 
with their lips : but their heart is far from me." 

Isaiah xxix. 13 : This description was intended to apply to 



ON THE PROPHECIES. 331 

the writer's own time, because in the continuation, chap. 
xxx., the people are reproved for seeking assistance from 
Egypt. 

Matt. xxi. 4 : " All this (the entry into Jerusalem) was done, that it 
might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the 
daughter of Zion, Behold thy king cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting 
upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass." 

Zech. ix. 9 : " Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion ; shout, 
O daughter of Jerusalem; behold thy king cometh unto 
thee : he is just, and having salvation ; lowly, and riding 
upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass." Compare 
this with the following passages of Zechariah, ch. iii. 8, 9 : 
" Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows 
that sit before thee : for they are men wondered at : for 
behold, I will bring forth my servant the branch. For be- 
hold the stone that I have laid before Joshua ; upon one stone 
shall be seven eyes ; behold I will engrave the graving there- 
of, saith the Lord of Hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of 
that land in one day." ix. 6 — 10 : " Then he answered and 
spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto 
Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my 
spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts. Who art thou, O great 
mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain; 
and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shout- 
ings, crying, Grace, grace, unto it. Moreover, the word of 
the Lord came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel 
have laid the foundation of this house ; his hands shall also 
finish it ; and thou shalt know that the Lord of Hosts hath 
sent me unto you. For who hath despised the day of small 
things ? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in 
the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven ; they are the eyes 
of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth." 
vi. 11 — 13 : " Then take silver and gold, and make crowns, 



332 ON THE PROPHECIES. 

and set them upon the head of Joshua the son of Josedech, 
the high priest ; and speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh 
the Lord of Hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is 
the Branch ; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he 
shall build the temple of the Lord : even he shall build the 
temple of the Lord ; and he shall bear the glory, and shall 
sit and rule upon his throne ; and he shall be a priest upon 
his throne : and the counsel of peace shall be between them 
both." 

It is clear that Zerubbabel is the person intended in all 
these passages. He was a " branch " of the house of David, 
1 Chron. iii. 19, and might very naturally be considered by 
the returned Jews as their lawful king. One object of the 
book of Zechariah seems to be to advance his pretensions. 
But he could not assume the regal state under the Persian 
rule, and was obliged to limit himself in public to an humble 
and pacific demeanour ; therefore his friend and poet Zecha- 
riah asserts his claim to the homage of his countrymen, not- 
withstanding his apparently low estate. According to Gro- 
tius (Annot. in Zech.), instead of " thy king cometh," the 
Hebrew might very well be read " thy king hath come f and 
he is described as riding upon an ass instead of a horse, 
not only from modesty, but also for the sake of showing a 
pacific intention; the ass being an animal of peace, and 
the horse of war. The title, " having salvation," or Saviour, 
(Sept. dwffwvj was given very commonly to national de- 
liverers.* 

Matt. xxii. 43 : "He (Jesus) saith unto them, How then doth David in 
the spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on 
my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool ? " 

Psalm ex. : This Psalm seems to be a fragment of a com- 
plimentary address to some person, to whom it gives the com- 

* See Judges iii. 9; 2 Kings xiii. 5. 






ON THE PROPHECIES. 333 

mon Jewish title, My Lord. See 1 Kings xviii. 7, 13, and 
Judges vi. 13. It speaks of his warlike greatness, but has 
nothing applicable to Jesus. When the original occasion of 
it was forgotten, it was probably considered to have reference 
to the Messiah, for want of any other apparent meaning. 
It might have been an ode addressed by David to Saul. The 
last verse may be explained in this way : Saul was known to 
be jealous of the authority of the high priest, to which dig- 
nity he himself could have no claim, not being of the family 
of Aaron ; the writer therefore flatters him with the title of a 
priest after the order of Melchizedek, who was not a common 
priest, but also king of Salem. 

Matt. xxiv. 15, 16 : " When therefore ye see the abomination of deso- 
lation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso 
readeth, let him understand,) then let them which be in Judea flee into the 
mountains." 

Daniel ix. 27 : There are many clear allusions in Daniel 
to the profanation of the sanctuary by Antiochus. This most 
obscure part of the book most likely refers also to the same 
event. There is nothing in the context to fix the meaning 
of the passage to the desolation under the Romans. See 
chap. xiv. on Daniel. 

Matt. xxvi. 31 : " Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended 
because of me this night ; for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and 
the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad." 

Zech. xiii. 7 : " Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, 
and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of 
Hosts ; smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scat- 
tered; and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones." 
The writer, probably Jeremiah,* begins here to describe the 

* That the last five chapters of Zechariah belong to Jeremiah is inferred, 
— lstly, from the similarity of style ; 2dly, from the prophecy against 
Assyria, x. 11, which could not proceed from Zechariah, who lived under 



334 ON THE PROPHECIES. 

miseries of the captivity, which he closes with a promise of 
miraculous vengeance on the Jews' enemies. The king of 
Judah is frequently called a shepherd or pastor. See Zech. 
xi. 3 — 5 ; Jer. xxv. 34. The words " man that is my fellow" 
are in the Septuagint ewt avdpa ttoXityiv juou, the man, my 
fellow citizen. The sword would not spare even the fellow 
citizen of God, i. e. the Jew who inhabited Jerusalem, God's 
own city. 

Matt. xxvi. 56 : " But all this was done (the apprehension of Jesus), that 
the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled." 

Dan. ix. 26 : " And after threescore and two weeks shall 
Messiah be cut off." See remark on Matt. xxiv. 15. 

In Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the Psalms, there are abundant 
allusions to real or emblematic personages in distress ; but, as 
will be shown, in none of them can the meaning be fixed to 
the case of Jesus. 

Matt, xxvii. 9 : " Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy 
the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of 
him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value ; and 
gave them for the potters' field, as the Lord appointed me." 

Zech. xi. 12 — 13 : The writer seems to be describing the 
little regard paid by the children of Israel to the Lord, which 
was the reason of his breaking his covenant with them. 
There is nothing in the context to fix the meaning of these 
verses to the Messiah. The coincidence of the thirty pieces 
of silver and the potters' field would be, however, very re- 
markable, if there were not reason to suspect Matthew of 
having accommodated his narrative to this verse ; for none of 
the other Evangelists mention thirty pieces of silver, or the 
potters' field. Mark, xiv. 11, and Luke, xxii. 5, merely say 
that Judas covenanted for money; and in Acts i. 18, it is 

the Persian empire , 3dly, from Matthew's quoting Zech.xi. 13, as part 
of Jeremiah. 









ON THE PROPHECIES. 335 

said that Judas, not the priests, bought " a field" with the 
money. 

Mark i. 2 : " As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messen- 
ger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee," &c. (applied 
to John the Baptist). 

Malachi, chap. iii. and iv., foretels the coming of a mes- 
senger of the Lord, and a day of vengeance on the wicked. 
This is one of those passages which produced the popular idea 
of a Messiah, and probably contributed to the undertaking of 
Jesus. But it does not correspond throughout with events in 
the time of Jesus, iii. 4 — 5 : " Then shall the offering of 
Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days 
of old, and as in former years, and I will come near to you to 
judgment." iv. 5 : " Behold I will send you Elijah the pro- 
phet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the 
Lord." 

Mark xiv. 27 : "I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scat- 
tered." 

See remark on Matthew xxvi. 31. 

Mark xv. 28 : " And the Scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was 
numbered with the transgressors." 

Isaiah liii. 12 : " And he was numbered with the trans- 
gressors, and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession 
for the transgressors." This was spoken of Jacob or Israel. 
See chap. xiii. 

Luke i. 69 : " And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us, in the house 
of his servant David, as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which 
have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies, 
and from the hands of all that hate us." 

Luke ii. 32 : "A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of my people 
Israel." 

Isaiah xlii. 6 ; and xlix. 6 : In both places, Jacob or Israel 
seems to be intended. See chap, xiii. 



336 ON THE PROPHECIES. 

Luke iii. 4 : "As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the pro- 
phet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness," &c. 

See remark on Matthew iii. 2, 

Luke iv. 17, 18 : "He (Jesus) found the place where it was written, 
The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach 
the Gospel to the poor ; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to 
preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind ; to 
set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the 
Lord." 

Isaiah lxi. 1 : The writer seems to refer to himself. The 
time intended by him is plainly that of the return from cap- 
tivity, from verse 4 ; " and they shall build the old wastes, 
and they shall raise up the former desolations." 

Luke vii. 27 : " This (John the Baptist) is he of whom it is written, Be- 
hold I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way 
before thee." 

The words are different in Malachi iii. 1, " Behold I will 
send a messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me/ 3 
i. e. the Lord of Hosts. See remark on Mark i. 2. Both 
Mark and Luke seem to have considered the alteration of a 
few pronouns perfectly admissible, in order to accommodate 
the passage to Jesus.* 

Luke xxiv. 27 : " And beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, he ex- 
pounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." 

Luke xxiv. 44 : " And he said unto them, These are the words which I 
spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled 
which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the 
Psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they 
might understand the Scriptures ; and said imto them, Thus it is written, 
and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third 
day." 

Deut. xviii. 15 : " The Lord thy God will raise up unto 

* Lightfoot in Marc. i. 2, says, " Ista quae a Malachia citantur, non ex- 
acte congrua vel fonti Hebraso, vel versioni Graecae." 

The Septuagint has " he shall prepare the way before my face." 






Ott THE PROPHECIES. 337 

thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like 
unto me ; unto him shall ye hearken." 

This might apply to any one who claimed the office of pro- 
phet after the time of Moses. The description suits Samuel 
rather than Jesus ; for the people are commanded to hearken 
to this prophet, instead of hearkening to diviners with familiar 
spirits and wizards. 

From 1 Sam. xxviii. 3 — 9, it appears that Saul, acting pro- 
bably under the direction of Samuel, had put away those that 
had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land, substi- 
tuting for this heathenish mode of divination inquiries of the 
Lord by dreams, by Urim, and by prophets. 

It is generally allowed that there are many indications that 
the Pentateuch was first compiled by Samuel. It seems, then, 
in the highest degree probable that the above passage of 
Deuteronomy was the decree drawn up and published by 
Samuel for the expulsion of the wizards, and the appointment 
of regular prophets like Moses, who were to form the legal 
and authorized medium of communication with the Lord, thus 
leaving no excuse for the irregular practices referred to. By 
the Prophet, therefore, Samuel meant himself and his succes- 
sors ; the name Prophet being henceforward the proper desig- 
nation, instead of the old title Seer. 1 Sam. ix. 9. 

The parts of the Psalms and Prophets intended by Luke 
are probably those cited elsewhere. There is no passage in 
the Old Testament which seems at all to point out the 
Messiah's resurrection on the third day.* Luke had in view, 



* The Jews never expected that the Messiah was to rise from the dead, but 
that his posterity would reign after his death. " Messiam ex morte in vitam 
rediturum esse Judsei nunquam expectarunt. ' Morietur autem Messias, 
regnahuntque post ipsum filius et nepotes. Moriturum enim ipse indicat 
Deus (vaticinio Esaiae xlii. 4). Non caligabit, nee frangetur, donee ponat 
in terra judicium,' &c, inquit Maimonides in Diss. Commentario in Tal- 
mud is Tractat." — Rosenmiiller Scholia in Esaiam. 



338 ON THE PROPHECIES. 

perhaps, tlie story of Jonah, which Matthew had already cited 
as the type of that event ; and possibly the following in Hosea 
vi. 1, 2 : " Come, and let us return unto the Lord : for he hath 
torn, and he will heal us ; he hath smitten, and he will bind 
us up. After two days will he revive us, in the third day he 
will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight " 



John i. 45 : " Philip fmdeth Nathaniel, and saith unto him, We have 
found him of whom Moses in the law and the Prophets did write, Jesus of 
Nazareth, the son of Joseph." 

See the preceding remark. 



John vii. 41 : " Some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee ? Hath not 
the Scripture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the 
town of Bethlehem, where David was?" 

The person from Bethlehem was to be a deliverer from the 

Assyrian (see note on Matt. ii. 6). John does not record the 

answer to the objection concerning the birth-place of Jesus, 

which Matthew and Luke had supplied, viz. that Jesus was 

born at Bethlehem ; nor does he ever allude to this, but calls 

him Jesus of Nazareth. Yet if he knew that Jesus was really 

born at Bethlehem, he could hardly have avoided mentioning 

it here. 

John xii. 37 : " But though he had done so many miracles, yet believed 
they not on him ; that the saying of Esaias the prophet might he fulfilled, 
which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report ? and to whom hath 
the arm of the Lord been revealed ? Therefore they could not believe, be- 
cause that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened 
their heart ; that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with 
their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. These things said 
Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him." 

The first quotation is from Isaiah liii., which, it will be 
shown, applies to Jacob or Israel. The second is from Isaiah 
vi., which describes the obstinacy of the Jews previously to 
the captivity. The time referred to is clearly noted, viz. from 
the year of Uzzialr's death " until the cities be wasted without 
inhabitant." By comparing v. 11 — -13 with 2 Chron. xxxvi. 









ON THE PROPHECIES. 339 

20, 21, it appears that the Babylonish captivity was the deso- 
lation referred to. The Evangelist's assertion, then, that 
Isaiah was speaking of Christ, proves his unscrupulousness in 
the use of the prophets, and probably his imperfect acquaint- 
ance with Jewish history. 

John xix. 24 : " They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend 
it (the coat), but cast lots for it, whose it shall be ; that the Scripture might 
be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my 
vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did." 

John v. 28 : " After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accom- 
plished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was 
set a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put 
it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth." 

Psalm xxii. 16: iC For dogs have compassed me; the 
assembly of the wicked have enclosed me : they pierced my 
hands and my feet." . . . . 18 : " They part my garments 
among them, and cast lots for my vesture." lxix. 21 : " They 
gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me 
vinegar to drink." 

These coincidences are remarkable ; and it is not surprising 
that to the disciples, searching the Scriptures expressly for 
prefigurations of Jesus, they should have appeared unques- 
tionable prophecies. Yet, on a careful perusal of the whole 
two Psalms, it does not appear that the resemblances in ques- 
tion can be considered as more than mere coincidences. The 
two Psalms contain the complaints of a man under persecu- 
tion. Some parts apply very well to Jeremiah : 

Compare Psalm xxii. 6, 7, with Jeremiah xx. 7. 
lxix. 8, id. xii. 6. 

id. 14, id. xxxviii. 6 — 9. 

The whole of the 69th Psalm is so much in the style of Je- 
remiah, and so applicable to his long imprisonment (Jer. xxxvii. 
16), that it seems not improbable that it was a part of his 
writings, of which it has been seen that detached parts are 

z 2 



340 ON THE PROPHECIES. 

dispersed under other titles in the Old Testament. Verses 
here and there apply very well to Jesus ; others do not : for 
instance, lxix. 5, " O God, thou knowest my foolishness, 
and my sins are not hid from thee " 11, " I made sackcloth 
also my garment." 

There are various readings of the text, " they pierced my 
hands and my feet." Rosenmuller gives a minute account 
of them, and concludes that the genuine reading was probably 
" they bound my hands and my feet," the Hebrew verb being 
one which might easily have been corrupted into the other 
readings.* Grotius admits this reading to be a probable 
one.t The Septuagint has, " they pierced ;" but there were 
copies in Aquila's time which had a different word. Since 
none of the Evangelists have made use of this text as a pro- 
phecy, whilst, as it stands at present, the coincidence is more 
striking than in many others which they have cited, it seems 
likely, that, in their time, the copies generally known to the 
Jews, whether of the Septuagint or of the Hebrew, had not 
the present reading, " they pierced." 

That a man's enemies should plunder him even of his 
clothes, and cast lots for them, was not an unlikely thought 
to occur to a writer endeavouring to paint a scene of great 
distress ; and the thing itself was very likely to be done by 



* Mihi vero, omnibus diligenter ponderatis, verisimile est, genuinam 
fuisse !H3 a verbo "VQ colligare. Certe ex hac lectione varietates reliquae 

T 

omnes facillime derivari possunt. — Rosenm. Scholia in Ps. xxii. 

f Hie quoque duplex fuit antiquitus lectio, quam utramque Chaldaeus 
in versione sua conjunxit. Jacob ben Chaiim ait fuisse "HRX foderunt, 
per eireveeaiv (insertionem) literse ^ : idem testatur Moses Hadarsan : in 
quibusdam exemplaribus sic fuisse agnoscunt Masoretse. LXX. oopv£av 
foderunt ; quomodo ex eis citat Justinus et alii ; Aquila, r)<rx wav pudefe- 
cerunt. Nulla ergo hie fraus Christianorum ; inter quos est et interpres 
iEthiops. Video quidem et Masoreticam lectionem posse defendi; sed 
altera loco magis convenit, turn ob alia, turn quia leonis comparatio non 
multo ante posita est, v. 13. — Grotius Annot. 



ON THE TROPHECIES. 341 

the executioners of public criminals. Such a coincidence, 
therefore, by no means requires the supposition of a prophetic 
spirit in the author of the Psalm. The writer of the fourth 
Gospel evidently labours to relate the circumstances so as to 
be in perfect accordance with the quotation. 

With respect to the offering of drink, there is much dis- 
similarity between the case contemplated by the Psalmist and 
that of Jesus. The Psalmist's enemies offer him vinegar 
(Sept. oE,og, translated by Rosennmller, " omphacium," or 
the juice of unripe grapes), and gall, x°^ (according to 
Michaelis, lolium temulentum — Oedman, colocynth), both 
obviously in mockery, since the Psalmist complains of it. 
But the offering to Jesus, on the contrary, was meant as a 
relief. Pliny speaks of wines flavoured with myrrh, as having 
been frequently used.* The Jewish writers agree that their 
criminals were accustomed to receive wine mingled with 
frankincense,f of which myrrh was an ingredient. And 
Mark says, that, immediately before the crucifixion, they 
offered to Jesus wine mingled with myrrh. If the vinegar 
offered afterwards were something different, it seems still to 
have been only what the Roman soldiers were accustomed to 
drink themselves. J Matthew alone speaks of vinegar mingled 
with gall ; but it has been seen that there is reason to suspect 
that he accommodated his description purposely to the 
Psalm. 

John xix. 33 — 36 : " They brake not his legs For these things 



* Hist. Nat. xiv. 15. 

f Babyl. Sanhed., fol. 43, " Prodeunti ad supplicium capitis, potum de- 
derunt, granumque thuris in poculo vini, ut turbaretur intellectus ejus." — 
See Rosenmiiller in Matt, xxvii. 

The incense described Exod. xxx. 34, contained stacte, which Pliny and 
Dioscorides spoke of as being fresh or liquid rnyrrh. 

1 Rosenm. in Matt, xxvii. 



342 ON THE PROPHECIES. 

were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not 
be broken." 

Exodus xii. 46 : " In one house shall it (the lamb) be 
eaten ; thou shalt not carry forth aught of the flesh abroad 
out of the house, neither shall ye break a bone thereof " 
Although Jesus might resemble the paschal lamb in this last 
respect, in many others there was no resemblance whatever, 
as in the eating of it, and the sprinkling of its blood on the 
door-posts. A spiritual resemblance, however, to this, and to 
the lambs used in the sacrifices, was supplied by the doctrines 
of transubstantiation and the atonement ; and it is worthy 
of consideration whether the disposition of the disciples, 
to find types of Jesus in animals so commonly used in the 
Jewish sacred rites, did not lay the main foundation for 
these doctrines. 

John xix. 37 . " And again another Scripture saith, They shall look on 
him whom they pierced." 

Zech. xii. 10 : " And I will pour upon the house of David, 
and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace 
and of supplication ; and they shall look upon me whom they 
have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth 
for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one 
that is in bitterness for his firstborn." The God of Israel 
promises a restoration of Jerusalem, and describes the bitter 
repentance which the Jews will then feel for piercing or 
blaspheming and injuriously treating himself. A word, sig- 
nifying properly to pierce, is used in the sense of blaspheming, 
Levit. xxiv. 11. To express the first person by the third 
after the intervention of a relative is a common Hebraism.* 



* Prima persona, sequente maxim e relativo, saepissime per tertiam in his 
libris exprimitur. Quem confixerunt, *np"*T *)]£})$ ets bv e&KevTTjvav, ut 
habuere Graeci interpretes quidam, et Johannes evangelista, ad Christum 
H'jo-tikws hsec applicans. At LXX, commutatis literis perquam similibus, 









ON THE PROPHECIES. 343 

To " mourn as for an only son," was only a proverbial 
phrase for excessive mourning. See Jer. vi. 26; Amos 
viii. 10. 

It is worth while to notice here a curious text, which, 
although not quoted by the disciples as a prophecy, seems, 
as it stands in our translation, to present a remarkable coin- 
cidence ; especially as it precedes Zech. xiii. 7, applied by the 
Evangelists to Jesus. Zech. xiii. 6 : " And one shall say 
unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands ? Then he 
shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house 
of my friends." The explanation suggested by Grotius is as 
follows : The writer describes the time when the idols and 
false prophets shall be banished from the land, and the latter 
fallen into such disrepute, that those who had hitherto fol- 
lowed the profession would be ashamed of it ; and when taxed 
with affecting to be prophets, as evidenced by their rough 
garments, would deny it with many excuses, such as, " I am 
no prophet, but an husbandman, for man taught me to keep 
cattle from my youth :" and when pressed further, " What 
then are these wounds or marks branded upon your hands ? " 
(i. e. certain seals or impressions called by Prudentius, sphra- 
gitidse, by which many idol- worshippers were accustomed to 
devote themselves to their gods, see Rev. xiii. 16, 17) he shall 
answer, " They are only those with which I was marked in 
the house of my friends/'' i. e. as a badge of servitude to the 
family whose cattle I was keeping. 

John xx. 10 : " For as yet they knew not the Scriptures, that he must 
rise from the dead." 

See remark on Acts ii. 25. 



legerunt "Hp*! avff asu e&pxyvavTo, quia debacchati sunt aut absilierunt. 
Noster sensus optimus est, nam configere Deum dicuntur, qui eum probris 
lacessunt ; nam sic et 3,p} quod proprie est perforare ponitur pro &\a<r- 
<prtiJ.ui>. Levit. xxiv. 11. — Grotius Annot. 



344 ON THE PROPHECIES. 

Acts i. 16 : " This Scripture must needs have heen fulfilled, which the 
Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas. 
. . . . 20 : For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation 
be desolate, and let no man dwell therein ; and his bishopric let another 
take." < 

The quotations are from the 69th and 109th Psalms, and 
have no more reference to Judas than to any other wicked 
person. The writer is denouncing his own adversaries. The 
first quotation is not correct, for the words in the Psalm are, 
" Let their habitation," &c. 

Acts ii. 16 : " For this (the gift of tongues) is that which was spoken 
by the prophet Joel, And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, 
I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh : and your sons and your daughters 
shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men 
shall dream dreams : and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will 
pour out in those days of my spirit, and they shall prophesy, and I will 
shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath ; blood 
and fire, and vapour of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, 
and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord 
come ; and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of 
the Lord shall be saved." 

The latter part of Joel promises, after the captivity, a 
miraculous interference of heaven in favour of Israel, and 
a day of vengeance on the nation's enemies. Peter imagined 
that this promise was about to be fulfilled in his days ; but 
the event proved that he was mistaken. The prophecy of 
visions and dreams fulfilled itself, for it occasioned the belief 
in the church that such gifts were really amongst them, and 
the belief produced instances. Nevertheless, the gift of lan- 
guages, with a view to which Peter introduces the prophecy, 
is not mentioned in it. 

Acts ii. 25 : " For David speaketh concerning him (Christ), 1 foresaw 
the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should 
not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was 
glad. Moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope. Because thou wilt 
not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see 
corruption Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the 



ON THE PROPHECIES. 345 

patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is 
with us unto this day : therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God 
hath sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according 
to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne, he seeing this 
before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, 
neither his flesh did see corruption." 

The Psalm is one of thanksgiving, and there is no reason 
to suppose that David meant to speak of any one but him- 
self. The latter part runs thus, Psalm xvi. 6 : " The lines 
are fallen unto me in pleasant places, yea, I have a goodly 
heritage. I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel ; 
my reins also instruct me in the night seasons. I have set 
the Lord always before me ; because he is at my right hand, 
I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my 
glory rejoiceth : my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou 
wilt not leave my soul in hell (hades, the grave) ; neither 
wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Thou wilt 
shew me the path of life : in thy presence is fulness of joy ; 
at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore." 

The writer of the Psalms appears to have believed in the 
immortality of the soul, and the possibility of its existence 
apart from the body. His meaning is clearly this : " The 
i prospect of the grave even shall not prevent me from hoping 
in God all the days of my flesh ; for thou wilt not leave my 
soul in the grave, although my body may remain there; 
neither wilt thou suffer thy saint (i. e. his soul) to see the 
corruption which his body will undergo ; but rescuing me, 
i. e. my then disembodied soul, from the gloomy hades, thou 
wilt shew to it some secret path to life." The same senti- 
ment occurs Psalm xlix. 15, " But God shall redeem my 
soul from the power of the grave." 

But Peter, or Luke, in order to accommodate the Psalm 
to Jesus, introduces a totally different sense, and concludes 
as if David had said that his body or flesh should not see 



346 ON THE PROPHECIES. 

ib- 



corruption, which David manifestly does not say. The su 
stitution of the word " flesh" for " thine holy one" is too 
notable an alteration to be admitted without question ; yet 
upon the equivalency of the two expressions is Peter's whole 
argument built. 

Psalm cxxxii. 11 : " The Lord hath sworn in truth unto 
David, he will not turn from it, Of the fruit of thy body will 
I set upon thy throne : if thy children will keep my covenant 
and my testimony, their children also shall sit upon thy 
throne for evermore." But Jesus did not appear again to 
sit on the throne of David, as Peter seems to have expected ; 
therefore there is no ground for applying this to him. 

Acts iii. 22 : " For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall 
the Lord your God raise up unto you, of your brethren, like unto me ; 
him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you." 

See remark on Luke xxiv. 27. 

Acts iii. 24 : " Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that 
follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these 
days. 25 : Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which 
God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall 
all the kindreds of the earth be blessed." 

Some passages in Isaiah and Micah seem to point to a 
religious conversion of all mankind; but the general sub- 
jects of all the prophets are the distresses of Israel, and his 
future glory. 

Acts iv. 25 : " Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why 
did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things ? The kings of 
the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, 
and against his Christ (anointed). For of a truth against thy holy child 
Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the 
Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together." 

The 2nd Psalm appears to be a coronation ode, addressed 
to David, the Lord's anointed. A parallel passage is in 
Psalm lxxxix. 20 : "I have found David my servant ; with 









ON THE PROPHECIES. 347 

my holy oil have I anointed him 27 : Also I will 

make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the 
earth." 

Acts viii. : The 53rd chapter of Isaiah applied to Christ by 
Philip. 

This will be considered in a separate chapter. 

Acts x. 43 : " To him (Jesus) give all the prophets witness, that 
through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of 
sins." 

Nothing of this is to be found in any of the prophets. 

Acts xiii. 27 : " For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, be- 
cause they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which 
are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning 
him." 

The only passage which appears to countenance the doc- 
trine of a suffering Messiah^ is Dan. ix. 26 : f( And after 
threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off." This 
admits of various readings ; and the time cannot be made 
to agree with the death of Jesus. See chap, on Daniel. 

Acts xiii. 32 : " The promise which was made unto the fathers, God 
hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up 
Jesus again ; as it is also written in the second Psalm, Thou art my son ; 
this day have I begotten thee." 

Since the Psalm contains no reference to Jesus (see note 

on Acts iv. 35), these words might be applied to any supposed 

instance of divine protection towards any person whatever, 

as well as to the resurrection of Christ. 

Acts xiii. 34 : " And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, 
now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you 
the sure mercies of David." 

Nathan the prophet promised David (2 Sam. vii. 15. 16), 
that the Lord's mercy should not depart from him as it did 
from Saul, and that his throne should be established for 



348 ON THE PROPHECIES. 

ever. But being raised from the dead, and maintaining the 
throne of David, are very different things; and it is* not 
surprising that the Jews of Pisidia contradicted the things 
spoken by Paul. 

Acts xv. 15 : " And to this (the conversion of the Gentiles) agree the 
words of the prophets, as it is written, After this I will return, and will 
build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down : and I will 
build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up, that the residue of men 
might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is 
called, saith the Lord, who doeth these things." 

Amos ix. 11, 12 : " In that day" (on the return of Israel 
from among all nations) " will I raise up the tabernacle of 
David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof, and I 
will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of 
old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the 
heathen which are called by my name (or upon whom my 
name is called), saith the Lord, that doeth this." In Oba- 
diah, 17 — 20, is a similar passage, with a list of the territories 
which Israel is to possess, viz. Edom, the Philistines, the field 
of Ephraim, of Samaria, Gilead, &c. It is probable, there- 
fore, that Amos alluded to an increase of the dominion of 
Israel. The apostle James (or Luke) has misquoted the pro- 
phecy, and made it to signify the conversion of the Gentiles 
to the religion of Jesus, to which meaning it could not have 
been strained, if he had quoted correctly. 

Acts xvii. 2 : " And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them (the 
Jews of Thessalonica), and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of 
the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered, 
and risen again from the dead." 

Ver. 28 : " For he (Apollos) mightily convinced the Jews, and that pub- 
licly, shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ." 

These passages show that the early Christians rested the 

proof of the Messiahship of Jesus mainly on the agreement 

of his character with the prophecies. We have seen that, in 



ON THE PROPHECIES. 349 

many of those quoted, there appears to be no agreement, and 
that in some cases they altered the prophecies. There is 
reason, then, to suspect that when in these public discourses 
they were hard pushed by the Jews, they might be tempted 
to make out the correspondence the other way, by altering 
the facts. 

Acts xxvi. 22 : " Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto 
this day .... saying none other things than those which the prophets and 
Moses did say should come, that Christ should suffer, and that he should 
be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the 
people, and to the Gentiles." 

Acts xxvi. 27 : " King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? " 

Paul again chooses to rest the truth of his preaching on 
prophecy. If we suppose that Paul used here also such ar- 
guments as this, that the texts, " Thou art my Son, this day 
have I begotten thee," and " I will give you the sure mercies 
of David," signified that Christ was raised from the dead, we 
cannot wonder that Festus should have thought that this 
kind of argument contained more learning than common 
sense. 

Acts xxviii. 23 : " And when they (the Jews of Rome) had appointed 
him a day, there came many to him into his lodging ; to whom he ex- 
pounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them, concerning 
Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets, from morning 
until evening. And some believed the things which were spoken, and 
some believed not." 

From Paul's threat to turn to the Gentiles, it would seem 
that those who did not believe were the greater part. In an 
assembly of Jews, therefore, well disposed to examine the 
question fairly, his argument from prophecy failed. 






And we need not be surprised that Paul failed, after thus 
examining the manner in which he and the other apostles 



350 ON THE PROPHECIES. 

were accustomed to argue from prophecy. We see that they 
selected sentences from all parts of the Old Testament, tearing 
them from the context, and applying them, without regard 
to their original meaning, to the history of Jesus. If the 
words bore a resemblance in sound only, they were pressed 
into the service, and sometimes altered so as to adapt them 
to their new application. By this method, a large collection 
of writings, like the Old Testament, might afford a tolerable 
description of any person whatever. Nevertheless, it is not 
necessary to suppose that, in this misinterpretation, the 
apostles pursued all along a system of intentional fraud. 
Very few of the Jews in their time attended so much to 
historical criticism as to be able to pronounce on the original 
meaning of all the prophetical parts of the Old Testament. 
Like many persons in our own time, they quoted them piece- 
meal, as if they were a collection of separate oracles. Jesus 
adapted some of his actions intentionally to the prophecies, 
and claimed to be the predicted Messiah : this put his fol- 
lowers upon seeking for more evidence of the same sort, and, 
thus biassed, they imagined that they discovered abundant 
coincidences. Afterwards, quoting from memory in their 
public discourses, they gave to the words the same turn 
which they had already given mentally to the sense; and, 
acquiring thus the habit of making out coincidences, they 
insensibly altered also their narratives of facts.* 

* Basnage (Hist, of Jews, ch. xxvi.) gives an account of the notions of 
the Talmudists and Rabbis concerning the Messiah expected by the Jews. 
They are extremely confused and contradictory. The Rabbis agree that 
the prophets contain oracles relating to the Messiah, but that the particular 
oracles which indicate his coming cannot be distinguished. Some say they 
were fulfilled in the person of Hezekiah. Maimonides gives for the true 
character of the Messiah, that he shall overcome all nations and never die. 
Some acknowledge that all the terms fixed for the coming of the Messiah 
are past. Hillel, who lived in the century before Jesus Christ, said, " There 
is no more a Messiah for Israel ; for they had a fruition of him in the time 



. 



ON THE PROPHECIES. 351 



The hypothesis of a secondary or mystical sense in the 
writings of the Old Testament is totally unsupported. The 
writers themselves do not pretend to have more than one 



of Hezekiah." Nevertheless, the Jews generally expect confidently that 
he will still come, saying, that God hath put off the time of his coming on 
account of the sins of the people, and that he will appear when they repent. 
Some Rabbis maintain that there will be two Messiahs ; the first, the son 
of Joseph, called Nehemiah, with the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim, 
will war successfully against the Romans, and recover the vessels of the 
sanctuary hid in the palace of the emperor Julian ; but he himself will be 
killed by the giant Armillus, a pseudo-Messiah or Antichrist. Afterwards 
shall appear the second Messiah, the son of David, accompanied by Elijah ; 
he is to kill Armillus, restore Jerusalem, destroy all the enemies of Judah, 
and raise the dead. At his banquet, the Leviathan will form the first 
course, God having killed and salted him for that purpose : the Behemoth 
will be served up for meat ; and the fowl will consist of the bird Bariuchne, 
whose wings, when opened, cover the sun, and one of whose eggs having 
fallen, drowned sixty cities. This fable gave rise to a formulary of oath 
common among the Jews, " If I lie, let me never eat of the wild ox, i. e. 
the behemoth." 

The following passage from Maimonides "deRegibus et Messia," not 
contained in all the editions, and alleged by Schoettgen to be erased by the 
Jews themselves, but quoted by Wagenseil on the Tract Sota, p. 346, is 
interesting, as showing partly the thoughts of an eminent Jew on Jesus and 
the hopes of his nation : — 

" Also concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who believed himself to be the Mes- 
siah, and was slain by the Sanhedrim, Daniel hath thus prophesied, ' Et filii 
effractorum populi tui efferent se ad stabiliendam visionem et cadent,' (in 
our version " and the robbers, or children of the robbers of thy people shall 
exalt themselves to establish the vision, but shall fall,") Dan. xi. 14. For 
what stumbling-block is greater than this, that all the prophets said that Mes- 
siah was to deliver, preserve, and gather the Israelites, and to adopt their laws? 
But he occasioned Israel to perish by the sword, and his remnants to be dis- 
persed and oppressed, and the law to be changed, and many to be perverted, 
and another besides Jehovah to be worshipped. But to attain to the thoughts 
of the Creator is not in the strength of man. For our ways are not his 
ways, nor our thoughts his thoughts. All these things of Jesus, the Naza- 
renes, and of the Ishmaelites who rose up after him (the Mahometans), are 
only to prepare the way for King Messias, and to prepare the whole world 
to serve Jehovah in unity, as is said Zeph. iii. 9, ' Then will I turn to all 
people a pure language, that all may call upon the Lord, to serve him with 
one consent (shoulder).' How? The world hath long been filled with 
words of the Messiah, of the law, and of the commandments, (i. e. probably 
with the fame of them,) and these things are diffused in many islands and 



352 ON THE PROPHECIES. 

meaning, which, in most cases is a very intelligible one, re- 
lating to events near their own times. A very striking and 
continuous correspondence with the history of Jesus might 
seem to justify such an hypothesis ; but it has been shown 
that there is no such correspondence, the coincidences being 
only few and imperfect. 

Let us now examine more at length the prophecies most 
relied on by Christians, viz. the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, and 
the book of Daniel. 



many nations, circumcised in heart and flesh, and hence they object and 
answer concerning those things, even the mysteries of the law, and say, 
1 These commandments are the truth ; but now for a long time they have 
ceased, nor are to be used any more.' Moreover they say, ' In these things 
were mysteries not expounded ; but King Messias hath come, and revealed 
their secrets.' But when King Messias shall indeed come, he will prosper 
and be exalted, and they will all return, and know that these were false- 
hoods." 






( 353 ) 



CHAPTER XIII. 

ON THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH. 

The Jewish sacred writings were burnt or dispersed at the 
time of the captivity, and afterwards collected together again, 
as is generally agreed, by Ezra.* In the second book of 
Maccabees we read that " Nehemiah founded a library, and 
gathered together the acts of the kings and the prophets, 
and of David, and the epistles of the kings, concerning the 
holy gifts," (about 445 B. C.,) 2 Mace. ii. 13. This collection 
was doubtless that made by Ezra the priest, who was more 
qualified for such a task than the viceroy himself, and it 
appears to have been the first regular compilation of the 
Prophets and Psalms. But since Nehemiah or Ezra had to 
deal with a miscellaneous collection, written at different 
times within the six centuries before their time, it is probable 
that there were some pieces of which they could not ascertain 
the exact date or authorship, and which consequently they 
might have placed under a wrong name. Between the time 
of Ezra and that of the Septuagint translation, (B. C. 277,) 
it is allowed that the Jews were careless about the custody 
and transcription of their sacred books. f Josephus, in his 
account of the Septuagint, makes Ptolemy's librarian say to 

* The Christian fathers generally believed that Ezra was divinely inspired 
to republish the lost and corrupted writings. Iren. contra Hser., 1. iii. xxi. 2. 
" The Scriptures having been corrupted during the captivity under Nebu- 
chadnezzar, and the Jews having returned after seventy years into their 
country, afterwards, in the time of Artaxerxes, God inspired Ezra to 
remember all the discourses of the former prophets, and to restore to the 
people the law of Moses." 

t Immo et Buxtorfius hoc est confessus, Judseos a tempore Esdrae negli- 
gentiores fuisse circa textum Hebrseum, et non curiosos circa lectionem 
veram. — Kennicott, Diss. Gen., sect. 19. 

2 A 



354 ON THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH. 

the king, " And I let you know that we want the books of 
the Hebrew legislation, with some others ; for they are writ- 
ten in the Hebrew characters, and are to us unknown. It 
hath also happened to them that they have been transcribed 
more carelessly than they should have been, because they 
have not had hitherto royal care taken about them." Ant. 
xh. ii. 4. This applied to the law ; but the prophets were 
quite as likely to be transcribed carelessly. Moreover, the 
sacred books were again dispersed under Antiochus Epi- 
phanes, and re-arranged by Judas Maccabseus (about 165 
B. C). 

It is not surprising, then, that the prophetic writings 
have come down to us in a disorderly state, and that parts 
of one author's writings are found mixed with those of 
another. 

The book of Isaiah appears to be a mixture of this kind. 
The first thirty-nine chapters contain much that was probably 
written by Isaiah himself, viz. the threat enings against 
Babylon, Moab, Tyre, &c, and the fragments of the history 
of Ahaz and Hezekiah, which must be parts of some larger 
and connected work of Isaiah ; for it is said, 2 Chron. xxvi. 
22, " Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, did 
Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, write :" yet there is 
none of the history of Uzziah in the present book of Isaiah. 
The thirty-ninth chapter ends abruptly in the midst of the 
history of Hezekiah, and the fortieth begins abruptly with 
the words, " Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your 
God." 

The rest of the book, from these words, appears to be one 
connected exhortation to the Jews on their return from cap- 
tivity under Zerubbabel, B. C. 536. It seems to be the work 
of some patriotic Israelite about that time, in order to inspire 
the people with zeal and courage to restore their nationality, 









ON THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH. 355 

according to the permission of Cyras. For if we compare 
the account of this memorable event in Ezra with these 
last twenty-seven chapters of Isaiah, we find the latter ex- 
pressing exactly the feelings natural to a Jew on such an 
occasion. They speak throughout of the long sufferings 
undergone by Israel in punishment of the nation's sins, and 
of the glorious prospect opening upon them ; of the assist- 
ance rendered by the Gentiles in restoring them to their 
country, which agrees with the decree of Cyrus, Ezra i. 4 — 6 ; 
of the fall of their old enemy Babylon ; and Cyrus himself is 
twice mentioned by name, xliv. 28; xlv. 1. There are many 
comparisons between the God of Israel and idols, and intima- 
tions that the true God was becoming known to the Gentiles 
by means of his servant Jacob ; which agrees with the desire 
of the neighbouring nations to join with the Jews in rebuild- 
ing the temple, Ezra iv. 2. It may be answered, that all this 
might have been written by Isaiah in the spirit of prophecy, 
two hundred years previously ; but of this there is no proof 
beyond the fact that it has been found since the time of 
Maccabseus in the miscellaneous collection called Isaiah ; 
therefore it is more probable that these chapters were written 
by some one contemporary with the events and persons which 
he describes. 

The prevailing idea is that Jacob or Israel, the personifica- 
tion of the Jewish nation, is the chosen servant of God ; that 
throughout all his vicissitudes he is specially protected by 
Him ; and that his late sufferings were owing to the nation's 
sins. I will extract some passages which have a bearing 
upon those usually interpreted of Christ. 

Isaiah xli. 2 : " Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called 
him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over 
kings ? He gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to 
his bow." 

2 a 2 



356 ON THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH. 

By comparing this with xlv. 1 — 3, Cyrus appears to 
be the person intended. Persia or Elam lay to the east of 
Babylon. 

Ver. 8 : " But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, 

the seed of Abraham, my friend 10 : Fear thou not, for I am 

with thee ; be not dismayed, for I am thy God : I will strengthen thee, 
yea, I will help thee ; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my 
righteousness." 

Here there can be no doubt who the servant is, viz. the 
Jewish people, considered figuratively as one man, their an- 
cestor Jacob. 

Isaiah xlii. 1 : " Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in 
whom my soul delighteth : I have put my spirit upon him ; he shall bring 
forth judgment to the Gentiles." 

Matthew has applied o this to Jesus, xii. 18. Grotius* and 
Rosenmuller t think it should be understood of Isaiah him- 
self. The similarity of the description, however, would lead 
one to suppose that the servant here is the same as the one 
in the preceding chapter, viz. Jacob. And the Septuagint 
surely settles the point, for it inserts the name, " Jacob is my 
servant, I will uphold him; Israel is my elect," &c. The 
vanity of the Gentiles' gods had just been described, and now 
Jacob is shown to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, by 
making known to them his God. 

Ver. 2 : "He shall not cry nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard 
in the street." 

The mute and humble condition of Jacob at Babylon, and 
under the Persians. 

Ver. 3, 4 : "A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax 

* Annot. in Esaiam. 

f Scholia. Rosenmuller considers xl. 6, 27 ; xli. 1, 8, 25 ; xlii. 1, 14; 
xlviii. 16 ; li. 1 ; lxi. 1 ; to refer to the prophet himself. But he allows, in his 
note on xlix. 3, that he fluctuated long between that interpretation and the 
one which refers the passage to the whole Jewish people. 






ON THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH. 357 

shall he not quench : he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall 
not fail, nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth, and the 
isles shall wait for his law." 

Whilst other nations are famous for magnificence or mar- 
tial glory, the oppressed Jacob is distinguished for his mild- 
ness, innocence, and possession of the truth concerning God, 
which he will spread to other nations. 

Ver. 5 — 8 : " Thus saith God, the Lord I the Lord have called 

thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and 
give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles ; to open 
the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that 
sit in darkness out of the prison-house. I am the Lord; that is my 
name, and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven 
images." 

This agrees with the description of Jacob in the pre- 
ceding chapter, xli. 10 — 17. The 15th verse had represented 
him as a "new sharp instrument," to execute some purpose 
of the Lord concerning the heathen. This chapter shows 
the purpose to be the extirpation of the idols, and the diffu- 
sion of the knowledge of the Lord. 

Ver. 18 : " Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see." 

Ye blind idolaters, see the light of the true religion of 
Israel. 

Ver. 19 : " Who is blind but my servant? or deaf as my messenger 
that I sent ? Who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord's 
servant?" 

Jacob himself is more blind than any of them, not to 
see the purpose of God concerning him through all his 
political vicissitudes, viz. that he is to be God's messenger to 
give light to the Gentiles. 

Ver. 20 : " Seeing many things, but thou observest not ; opening the 
ears, but he heareth not." 

Although he gives light to others, he remains blind him- 



358 



ON THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH. 



self, for the nation does not generally recognize the said 
evident purpose of God. 

Ver. 21 : " The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness' sake ; he 
will magnify the law, and make it honourable." 

Nevertheless, since Jacob has preserved his fidelity to 
God by maintaining his law delivered by Moses, the Lord 
will at last exalt him and the law amongst the nations. 

Ver. 22: "But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of 
them snared in holes, and hid in prison-houses : they are for a prey, and 
none delivereth ; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore." 

The anticipated objection of an opponent. How can it be 

true that God intends such great things for his people, when 

we see them robbed ? &c. 

Ver. 23, 24 : " Who among you will give ear to this ? Who will hearken 
and hear for the time to come ? Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel 
to the robbers ? Did not the Lord, he against whom we have sinned ? for 
they would not walk in his ways." 

The writer's answer. The sufferings of Jacob in his seventy 

years' captivity are no disproof of God's special protection of 

him, but the contrary, for they were inflicted to turn the 

people from their sins. 

Isaiah xliii. 10 : "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant 
whom I have chosen." 

Isaiah xliv. 2 : " Thus saith the Lord that made thee, and formed thee 
from the womb, which will help thee, Fear not, Jacob my servant, and thou 
Jesurun, whom I have chosen." 

These, and many similar verses, show that the servant 
spoken of continues to be Jacob or Israel. They show also 
that the distinction between the people themselves and their 
emblematic representative Jacob is not always accurately 
preserved, but that the writer sometimes passes loosely from 
one to the other ; as is natural, from the difficulty of main- 
taining the figurative style through the whole of a long 
composition. A writer who should usually speak of the 



ON THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH. 359 

English nation under the names of Albion or Britannia, 
would be very apt sometimes to drop into the plainer style of 
the people of England, or Englishmen ; and in a poetical com- 
position he would be allowed to use the terms as synonymous, 
or to consider the individuals composing the nation as distinct 
from their collective representative, as suited his purpose. 

Isaiah xlv. 1 : " Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose 

right hand I have hoi den to subdue nations before him 3 : I will 

give thee the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, 
that thou mayest know, that I the Lord, which call thee by thy name, 

am the God of Israel 4 : For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel 

mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name : I have surnamed thee, 
though thou hast not known me. ... 13 : I have raised him up in right- 
eousness, and I will direct ail his ways : he shall build my city, and he 
shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the Lord of 
Hosts. . . . xlvi. 9 : I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the 
end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not 
yet done. ... 11 : Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that 
executeth my counsel from a far country ; yea, I have spoken it, I will 
also bring it to pass." 

These passages show that the book was originally put forth 
under the character of a prophecy. The elevation of the 
sentiments throughout the book is not incompatible with 
this kind of pious fraud, if such a name be applicable in this 
case ; for prophecy was the favourite species of writing with 
the Jews, and their poets usually adopted it. Their God 
foresaw all things from the beginning. The description of 
events as contemplated by him in the future, presented a 
more vivid picture to the imagination than an historical 
narrative in the past tense. The writer believed that the 
Lord had decreed in his own councils the advent of Cyrus, 
and had even predetermined his name; and the Lord is 
poetically represented as announcing his decrees. 

Isaiah xlix.l : " Listen, O isles, unto me ; and hearken, ye people, from afar. " 

Here begins a triumphant song of Jacob on account of 



360 ON THE PROPHECIES OF ISArAH. 

the departure from Babylon, introduced by the preceding 
chapter. 

Isaiah xlix. 3, 4 : " (The Lord) said unto me, Thou art my servant, 
O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. . Then I said, I have laboured in 
vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain ; yet surely my 
judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God." 

I, Jacob, seem still to have laboured in vain in keeping 

God's law, and to be without a reward; for, after all, I 

am poor, despised, subject to the Persians, and although 

restored to Palestine, yet only a small remnant compared 

with the numerous twelve tribes who formerly inhabited the 

land. 

Isaiah xlix. 5 : " And now saith the Lord that formed me from the 
womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be 
not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God 
shall be my strength." 

The Lord that formed me, Jacob his servant, saith, in 

order to bring me again to him, after such a long apparent 

estrangement from his favour at Babylon, Though the tribes 

of Israel be not all gathered into their land, yet I, Jacob, 

shall still be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, for he hath a 

higher purpose concerning me than to make me politically a 

great nation. 

Isaiah xlix. 6 : " And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest 
be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the pre- 
served (or desolations) of Israel : I will also give thee for a light to 
the Gentiles, that thou mayest be »my salvation unto the end of the 
earth." 

To restore thy tribes and kingdom to their former great- 
ness is but little, compared with the higher office to which 
thou, Jacob, art appointed, of giving light to the Gentiles.* 

* Grotius, Rosenmiiller, and others, suppose that Isaiah in the beginning 
of this chapter speaks of himself. But this interpretation also would re- 
quire a very forced construction of some parts, and particularly of verse 3. 
Whereas the other interpretation, viz. that Jacob and the Lord are the only 



ON THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH. 361 

Isaiah xlix. 7 : " Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and his 
Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation (Gentiles) 
abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall 
worship, because of the Lord that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, 
and he shall choose thee." 

The despised Jacob shall at last receive homage from the 
princes of the earth, of which we see the beginning in the 
respect now paid to the Jewish nation by Cyrus. The despised 
one evidently means the Jewish nation, because nearly the same 
things are said of it ver. 21 — 23, under the name of Zion. 

Isaiah. 1. 4 : " The Lord hath given me the tongue of the learned." 
Grotius again supposes this and the following verses to refer 
to Isaiah, and Jerome says that the Jews understood them in 
this way. But on comparing ver. 7 with xli. 10 — 14, it 
seems more natural to consider Jacob the speaker. 

Isaiah Hi. 11, 12 : " Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence ; touch 
no unclean thing ; go ye out of the midst of her ; be ye clean that bear the 
vessels of the Lord. For ye shall not go with haste, nor go by flight." 

A parallel passage to chap, xlviii. 20, " Go ye forth of Ba- 
bylon." Cyrus permitted the Jews to carry back the sacred 
vessels ; and the return was conducted by Zerubbabel with 
great order, each family being numbered. Ezra i. ii. 

Isaiah lii. 13 : " Behold my servant shall deal prudently (or, prosper) ; 
he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high." 

A parallel passage to xlviii. 15, where, after speaking of the 
fall of Babylon, it is said, " He (Jacob) shall make his way 
prosperous." 

There is no reason to suppose that another subject, such as 

speakers, agrees well with the whole strain of the book, whilst the difficulty 
seems to be owing merely to the loose manner of using the pronouns in 
Hebrew, the first and third persons being frequently interchanged, of 
which there are many instances even in Josephus. See also Acts xvii. 
2, 3. Grotius concludes that the reading in the text of ver. 5 is the true 
one, and not the marginal reading. 



362 



ON THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH, 



the mission of Christ, is introduced here. Supposing the 
" servant " to mean, as usual, Jacob or Israel, the connexion 
with what goes before is easy and natural. Jacob, by the 
return from captivity, shall prosper, &c. 

Isaiah lii. 14: "As many were astonished at thee (Lowth, him) : his 
visage was so marred, more than any man, and his form more than the sons 
of men." 

The disgraced state of Jacob at Babylon. 

Isaiah lii. 15 : " So shall he sprinkle many nations, the kings shall shut 
their mouths at him ; for that which had not been told them shall they see ; 
and that which they had not heard, shall they consider." 

Cyrus confesses that "the Lord God of Israel, he is the 

God," Ezra i. 3 ; other kings shall follow his example, and 

wonder to find that the small despised Jewish nation was God's 

instrument for so mighty a purpose. The following is a parallel 

passage addressed to Zion, xlix. 23 : " And kings shall be thy 

nursing fathers and their queens thy nursing mothers : they 

shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and 

lick up the dust of thy feet." 

Isaiah liii. 1 : " Who hath believed our report ? and to whom is the arm 
of the Lord revealed?" 

Who is not surprised at hearing this account of God's deal- 
ings with Jacob, and his intentions in laying afflictions upon 
him ? 

Isaiah liii. 2 : " For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and 
as a root out of a dry ground : he hath no form nor comeliness ; and when 
we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him." 

At Babylon Jacob or Israel was like a plant growing on 
a harsh soil. The nation was in slavery, and had none of 
the beauty and splendour of an independent people. In 
chap. xliv. 3, Jacob is compared to the dry ground itself; 
which is nearly parallel to the root out of a dry ground in 
this place. 






ON THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH. 363 



Isaiah liii. 3 : " He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, 
and acquainted with grief; and we hid, as it were, our faces from him ; 
(or he hid, as it were, his face from us ;) he was despised, and we esteemed 
him not." 

In chap xlix. 7, Jacob or Israel is called " him whom man 

despiseth." The latter part seems to mean, because of the 

contempt into which the Jewish nation had fallen, we Jews 

even were become ashamed of it. 

Isaiah liii. 4 : " Surely, he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows ; 
yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." 

The sorrows of Jacob are onr own, and ought to endear him 

the more to us Jews ; yet many of us began to consider our 

nation forsaken by God, and were inclined to renounce our 

nationality. 

Isaiah liii. 5 : " But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was 
bruised for our iniquities : the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and 
with his stripes (or bruise) we are healed. 6 : All we like sheep have 
gone astray : we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath 
laid on him the iniquity of us all." 

The right view of the nation's or Jacob's sufferings is, that 

they are to correct the iniquities of the people. Our country 

hath suffered much since the days of Nebuchadnezzar ; but 

by this, we Jews are healed or made righteous. A parallel 

place is xliii. 24 — 28 : " Thou hast wearied me with thine 

iniquities; . . . thy first father hath sinned, and teachers 

have transgressed against me. Therefore I have given Jacob 

to the curse, and Israel to reproaches/' 

Isaiah liii. 7 : " He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened 
not his mouth : and he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter ; and as a 
sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." 

Jacob hath patiently endured his hard tribulation at Ba- 
bylon. 

Isaiah liii. 8 : " He was taken from prison and from judgment, and (or, 
he was taken away by distress and judgment, but) who shall declare his ge- 



364 ON THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH. 

neration ? for he was cut off out of the land of the living : for the transgres- 
sion of my people was he stricken " (or, was the stroke upon them). 

Jacob was taken away from his own land by a severe judg- 
ment,* and who can help wondering at the strangeness of his 
life and fortunes ? for he became then to all appearance dead, 
being blotted ont from the nations, the divine justice requir- 
ing this penalty for the sins of the people. 

Isaiah liii. 9 : " And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the 
rich f in his death (in Hebrew, deaths), because (or, although) he had done 
no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth." 

Babylon, that idolatrous and rich city, seemed to be his 

tomb, his kings and people being carried thither to die. J 

Isa. liii. 10: "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him ; he hath put him 
to grief; when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin (or, when his 
soul shall make an offering for sin), he shall see his seed, he shall prolong 
his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand." 

Yet all this was done by the Lord his God, not with a view 

to destroy him, but to fulfil his own deep purposes ; for when 

the people have thoroughly repented of their sins, and gone 

through the penalty decreed, Jacob shall be restored as a 

nation ; a fresh race of Jews shall spring up, and become a 

firm and flourishing people. 

* According to Kimchi, " Oppressus est exactionibus pecuniarum." 
f In the present Hebrew text, the word is in the singular, "cum divite ;" 
but in Justin's time it seems to have been plural, " cum divitibus." " Qua- 
ter plurali numero vocem (divite s) affert Justinus, atque in ea, ac si sincera 
esset, acquiescit." — Kennicott, Dissert., sect. 70. 

% The sense given by Rosenmuller is, " Quinetiam sepulchrum ei assig- 
narunt cum scelestis ; tumulum sepulchralem juxta facinorosos," which may 
mean simply that at his death he was accounted and treated as one of the 
wicked. In this case the second clause, " with the rich," &c, would be 
only a poetical repetition of the first. The rich and the wicked seem to be con- 
sidered as nearly synonymous. Job xxvii. 13 — 19. The resemblance of 
the two adj ectives resho and osheir might have suggested the use of such a 
synonyme. Kimchi says that the plural, "deaths," is used, because the 
Jews suffered many different kinds of deaths from the Babylonians. — See 
Rosenm. Scholia. 









ON THE PROPHECIES OP ISAIAH. 365 

Ver. 11 : "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: 
by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many : for he shall 
bear their iniquities."* 

Ver. 12 : "Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he 
shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul 
unto death : and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the 
sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." 

By his preserving the knowledge of the law of God, Jacob 
shall justify his people, or wash away their guilt in the eyes 
of the Lord. In reward, he shall enjoy again temporal pros- 
perity, as when the kings of Persia shall compel their tribu- 
taries, princes stronger than Jacob, to assist him. This shall 
compensate him for the political death which he hath en- 
dured, and reward the patience with which he has undergone 
the penalty of the nation's sins, and thereby, like Moses, 
performed the part of an intercessor with the Lord for the 
people.f 

Isa. liv. 1 : " Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear, break forth into 
singing, and cry aloud ... for more are the children of the desolate than 
the children of the married wife, saith the Lord. . . . 3 : For thou shalt 
break forth on the right hand and on the left ; and thy seed shall inherit 
the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited." 

The same subject is continued, but Jerusalem or Zion, a 

* Lam. v. 7 : " Our fathers have sinned, and are not, and we have borne 
their iniquities." 

f It is possible that the "transgressors" in this verse may mean the 
idolatrous nations amongst whom Jacob was captive, which would render 
this a parallel passage to Jer. xxix. 7 : " And seek the peace of the city, 
whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the 
Lord for it." But it seems more consistent to consider the transgressors 
here the same as in ver. 8. 

The Rabbi David Kimchi supposed that, at ver. 1, the idolatrous kings 
and nations mentioned in the preceding chapter begin to speak, and that 
this whole chapter expresses their wonder at finding the Jewish nation 
destined to expiate their iniquities and to convert them. But it seems more 
consistent with the rest of the book to suppose that the iniquities of the 
Jewish people themselves are here intended; since Jacob or Zion is so fre- 
quently said to bear the iniquities of the people.— -xlii. 24 ; 1. 1 ; xliii. 27. 



366 ON THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH. 

female, is introduced instead of Jacob. The same transition 
occurs in ch. xlix. The idea here is the same as in ch. liii. 10, 
" he shall see his seed •" and as the Jewish nation is plainly 
intended in this place, it is reasonable to suppose that it is in 
the former also. 






Thus is this celebrated fifty -third chapter of Isaiah, which 
has been considered the chief prophecy concerning Jesus 
Christ, explained without any reference to him ; and it is for 
the reader to determine if the sense here given to the chapter 
does not upon the whole agree well with the context both 
before and after it, and with the style and ideas of the whole 
book, in numerous parts of which the figurative is strained 
nearly as much as is required by this interpretation. Whereas, 
if the passage be considered to relate to Christ, it is torn from 
the context, and the writer is made to introduce a new subject 
without giving any notice, and to return as abruptly to his 
usual one. Bishop Lowth warns us, at ch. xlii., that the 
writer is now about to speak of the Messiah;* but the writer 
is surely little obliged to the Bishop for making him incohe- 
rent without necessity. The Bishop informs us also that the 
Messiah is often spoken of in this book under the name of 
Jacob or Israel ;f but that these names mean here something 
quite different from what they usually do in the Old Testa- 
ment, viz. the Jewish nation, is an unnatural and unsupported 
hypothesis. It is true that some of the Babbis interpreted 
this chapter as relating to the Messiah, J in the same manner 



* Lowth on Isaiah, notes on ch. xlii. 

f Ibid, notes on ch. Hi. 

X Aben Esra. Sunt haud pauci magistrorum nostrorum qui hoc seg- 
mentum de Messia interpretentur, propterea quidem quod majores nostri 
beatse memorise, dicant Messiam natum esse, quo tempore destructa est 
domus sanctuarii, sed dein catenis vinctum. Rosenm. Scholia in Es. 



ON THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH. 367 

as they did many other parts of Scripture having obviously 
no such sense ; for which practice they are blamed as fanciful 
and extravagant by the best modern critics.* But some of 
the most learned and judicious among them, including Kimchi 
and Aben Esra, and the generality of the Jews, understood 
the chapter to relate only to their own nation.f Origen tells 
us, that when he argued with some Jews in favour of Jesus, 
from the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, one of them replied 
" that the words did not mean one man, but one people, the 
Jews, who were smitten of God, and dispersed among the 
Gentiles for their conversion." % He admits, also, that the 
Jews of his time were accustomed to deride the Christians, as 
not understanding the sense of the Scriptures on which they 
pretended to build so much. § 

Some parts of the chapter cannot apply to Jesus, for he 
did not" see his seed, nor prolong his days. The passages, 
" he bare the sin of many," and " the Lord laid upon him the 
iniquities of us all," require, for their application to Jesus, 
the doctrine of the atonement. The supposed types of the 
paschal and sacrificial lambs having laid the foundation for 
that doctrine, || it may easily be imagined, that the desire to 



* Sed constat evangeliorum scriptores ex singulari quadam scripta sacra 
interpretandi ratione, quae tunc inter Judaeos recepta esset, multa prophe- 
tarum aliorumque scriptorum Hebrgeorum loca de Messid interpretatos 
esse, quae a scriptorum consilio de aliis personis agerent. Rosenm. addit. 
in cap. xlii. 

f Ibid, in Es. liii. 

X Cont. Cels. i. 55. 

§ Kennicott, Diss. Gen. 80. 

|j The paschal lamb was killed merely for a commemorative feast, and 
not properly sacrificed ; but in many of the sacrifices, and, amongst others, 
those of sin-offerings, lambs were used. Lev. v. 6. In the New Testament 
Christ is likened to both. 1 Cor. v. 7 : " For even Christ our passover is 
slain for us." 1 Pet. i. 18, 19: "Being redeemed . . . with the precious 
blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." John 
i. 29 : " Behold the lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world." 



368 ON THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH. 

find in every verse of this chapter an application to Christ 
contribnted to strengthen it. 

The book of Isaiah was a favourite one among the Jews, 
from the beauty of its imagery and the grandeur of its views 
concerning their nation, which it represents as destined to a 
splendid revival, and to be the instrument for spreading the 
knowledge of God through many nations. Such views were 
not unnatural to an imaginative and patriotic Jew in the 
days of Cyrus, when the Jews had been brought freely into 
contact with other nations, and when the view of the esta- 
blished idolatries around them had contributed to exalt their 
reverence for their own ancient creed. In the natural order 
of things, some prophecies have a tendency to fulfil them- 
selves; the spirit and aim of favourite writings impress 
themselves upon the readers ; and thus the sublime and en- 
thusiastic tone of this book of Isaiah was caught up by Jesus, 
and contributed to suggest to him the ideas of his Messiah- 
ship and of the kingdom of heaven. The book contains a 
mixture of temporal and spiritual views; the Jews are to 
become a great nation, and to spread God's word among the 
Gentiles. Jesus, accordingly, claimed the joint character of 
king and prophet. The Christ was to be both king of Israel, 
and a light of the world. It was only when he had been put 
to death, and some time had elapsed without his re-appearing 
in his kingly character, that his disciples began to represent 
him chiefly as a spiritual prince. They, too, drew largely 
from the book of Isaiah, and rested upon it their main argu- 
ments from prophecy. So prominent a place, indeed, do the 
language and spirit of this book seem to have held in the 
minds of both Jesus and his disciples, that it might be con- 
sidered as not the least among the causes of the establishment 
of Christianity. But when the divine authority of Jesus had 
come to be acknowledged as independent and incontestable, 



ON THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH. 369 

the matter was reversed, and Christianity was held to be the 
cause of the book. Instead of admitting the natural order 
of things — that Jesus had imbibed the views of a book which 
he had read — it was supposed that the author of the book 
had, by means of a divine spirit of foresight, anticipated the 
views of Jesus. 

Paley* cites the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah as "the 
clearest and strongest" prophecy of the Old Testament; and 
argues on the improbability that the personage alluded to 
could mean a nation. But he omits to inform his readers 
that the Jewish nation had been repeatedly introduced as 
one man, Jacob ; and, indeed, makes no comparison of the 
chapter with the context ; so that his arguments must neces- 
sarily mislead a reader who has not previously studied the 
whole book of Isaiah. 

* Evid. Part II. ch. i. 



2 B 



( 370 ) 



CHAPTER XIV. 



ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 



Vision of J N the eighth chapter of Daniel there is an account 

the ram 

and goat, of a vision of a ram with two horns, which was 
smitten by a he-goat, having a notable horn be- 
tween his eyes, which horn being broken, four other notable 
horns came up, toward the four winds of heaven. The 
chapter itself informs us that by this was meant, the conquest 
of the kings or kingdoms of Media and Persia by the king 
of Grecia; the first great horn being the first king, viz. 
Alexander the Great, and the four notable horns after hkn 
four kingdoms which " shall stand up out of the nation, but 
not in his power f i. e. plainly the four Macedonian mo- 
narchies of Thrace, Macedon, Syria, and Egypt. 
The little So far the vision is clear, and commentators 

horn. 

agree. But Daniel sees coming out of the four 
notable horns, a little horn, which plays a very conspicuous 
part; and to determine who the little horn is, forms the great 
problem of the book of Daniel. Josephus understood it to 
mean Antiochus Epiphanes; according to Jerome, it was 
Antiochus as a type of Anti-christ ; Sir Isaac Newton thought 
that it meant the Romans ; Bishop Newton, that it meant, 
first the Romans, and afterwards the popes. 

The matter is so far important, that on the meaning of the 
little horn depends mainly the prophetic character of the 
book of Daniel; i. e. whether it really contains the description 
of any events which happened after the time when it was 
written ; and also whether the writers of the New Testament 



ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 371 

have made Jesus Christ apply correctly several passages from 
Daniel. 

A close examination of all the passages relating to the 
little horn, will prove that its meaning ought to be limited to 
Antiochus Epiphanes. Compare them with the two books of 
Maccabees, which describe minutely the events of that time, 
and which, being written also by Jews, render the parallelisms 
more clear than any other history. 

Dan. viii. 9 : " And out of one of them (the four notable horns) came 
forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and 
toward the east, and toward the pleasant land." 

1 Maccabees i. 10 : " And there came out of them (the 

servants of Alexander) f ' a wicked root, Antiochus Epiphanes, 

son of Antiochus the king, who had been a hostage at Rome; 

and he reigned in the 137th year of the kingdom of the 

the Greeks." Then follows an account of his conquests in 

Egypt, and his oppression of Judsea. 

Ver. 10 : "And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast 
down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon 
them. 11 : Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and 
by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary 
was cast down. 12 : And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice 
by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground ; and 
it practised and prospered." 

1 Mace. i. 20 : " And after that Antiochus had smitten 

Egypt, he returned again in the 143rd year, and went up 

against Israel and Jerusalem with a great multitude, and 

entered proudly into the sanctuary, and took away the golden 

altar, and the candlestick of light, and all the vessels thereof, 

and the table of the shewbread, &c. . . . He took also the 

silver and the gold, and the precious vessels ; also he took 

the hidden treasures which he found. And when he had 

taken all away, he went into his own land, having made a 

great massacre, and spoken very proudly. Therefore there 

2 b 2 



372 ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 

was great mourning in Israel. ... 39: The sanctuary was 
laid waste like a wilderness; her feasts were turned into 
mourning, her sabbaths into reproach ... 41 : Moreover, king 
Antiochus wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one 
people, and every one should leave his laws : so all the hea- 
then agreed, according to the commandment of the king. 
Yea, many also of the Israelites consented to his religion, 
and sacrificed unto idols. " 

The vision of the little horn is interpreted thus by the 
angel : 

Dan. viii. 23 : " And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the trans- 
gressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding 
dark sentences, shall stand up." 

In 2 Mace. iv. v. is related the wickedness of the high 
priests, Jason and Menelaus, and the prevalence of Greek or 
heathenish fashions at the beginning of the reign of An- 
tiochus. 

Ver. 24 : " And his power shall he mighty, but not by his own power : 
and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper and practise, and shall 
destroy the mighty and the holy people." 

" Not by his own power ;" i. e. he did all this by permis- 
sion of God, in order to punish the transgressions of the 
Jews. 

Ver. 25 : " And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper 
in his hand ; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall 
destroy many : he shall also stand up against the prince of princes ; but he 
shall be broken without hand." 

1 Mace. i. 29 : " And after two years were fully expired, 
the king sent his chief collector of tribute unto the cities of 
Judah, who came into Jerusalem with a great multitude, and 
spake peaceable words unto them, but all was deceit: for 
when they had given him credence, he fell suddenly upon 



ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 373 

the city, and smote it very sore, and destroyed much people 
of Israel." 

The end of Antiochus was, that he died of a sudden dis- 
ease, as he was on his way to destroy Jerusalem.* 

Dan. viii. 13 : " Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said 
unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concern- 
ing the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the 
sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? 14: And he said unto 
me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days ; then shall the sanctuary 
be cleansed." 

Judas Maccabseus cleansed the sanctuary on the 25th day 
of the month Casleu, in the year 148 (1 Mace. iv. 52), which 
would allow at most only 2095 days from the entrance of 
Antiochus into the temple in the year 143. But the calcu- 
lation is perhaps made to the death of Antiochus, in 149; 
for the word cleansed is translated in the margin "justified." 
This would give about 2300 days. 



The identity of the little horn with Antiochus is perceived 
still more plainly on reading the whole of the books of the 
Maccabees. The style of speaking, and the sentiments con- 
cerning him, are the same in the prophet and in the his- 
torians, t There is in both an expression of vivid indignation 
at his oppressions, and of trust in providence for a final re- 
storation of the nation. Both bring before our eyes the 
dreadful distresses of Israel ; the magnanimity and resolute 
faith with which he effected his own liberation. In the pro- 
phecy, the events are foretold as to occur near the time of 
the end; ver. 17 — 19, " Behold, I will make thee know what 
shall be in the last end of the indignation : for at the time 



* 2 Mace. ix. Polyb. in Excerp. Vales, p. 145. 

f This applies especially to the second book of Maccabees. 



374 ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 

appointed the end shall be." The writer seems then to have 
been some one living abont the time of the events he de- 
scribes ; for many are apt to imagine their own times the last 
days, or times of the end; but the expression would be absurd 
in the mouth of one who could see further into futurity. 
The days of Antiochus were not the last days of the Jewish 
people, nor, if the writer were really a prophet, is there any 
reason why he should have dwelt so largely and earnestly on 
his oppressions, rather than on subsequent calamities of the 
nation. 
The things The presumption that the writer was a Jew of 

noted in the . . 

Scripture the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, or soon after, 

is confirmed by chapter xi. An angel shows 
to Daniel " what shall befal his people in the latter days," 
x. 14. He begins with Darius the Mede, alludes briefly to 
Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius Hystaspes, and Xerxes,* the con- 
quest of Persia by Alexander the Great,- and the division of 
his kingdom; he becomes more minute in describing the 
quarrels and alliances of Syria and Egypt until the time of 
Antiochus Epiphanes ; and relates his history in a warm and 
impassioned manner. This is exactly the manner of histo- 
rians ; they give a rapid sketch of events long past, and 
increasing details as they approach their own times. But 
no reason can be given why a prophesying angel in the time 
of Daniel should have adopted such a method. After the 
death of Antiochus, the prophecy, which had hitherto^been 
minute and historical, becomes vague and mysterious, and 
soon closes. But Bishop Newton and others maintain that 



* Since the prophecy , is supposed to be given in the time of Daniel, it 
was necessary to glance at the intermediate history, in order to introduce 
the writer's principal topic, viz. a prophetical description of his' own times. 
But as this is merely an introduction, he does it very briefly and carelessly, 
and passes at once from Xerxes to Alexander. 



ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 375 

it goes beyond the times of Antiochus, and even their own. 
Let us, then, endeavour to clear up this point, which is so 
important towards fixing the character of the book. 

Dan. xi. 20 : " Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes in 
the glory of the kingdom; but within few days he shall be destroyed, 
neither in anger, nor in battle." 

Seleucus Philopator was obliged to pay a heavy tribute to 
the Romans, and attempted to plunder the sacred treasure at 
Jerusalem.* He was poisoned by one of his officers, f 

Ver. 21 : " And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom 
they shall not give the honour of the kingdom : but he shall come in 
peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries." 

Antiochus Epiphanes, called in Maccabees a wicked root, 
obtained the kingdom by the help of Eumenes, king of 
Pergamus. He mixed much with the populace to obtain 
their favour, J and quitted his palace to make room for Tib. 
Gracchus, the Roman ambassador. 

Ver. 22 ; " And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from 
before "him, and shall be broken; yea also the prince of the covenant." 

A general allusion to the success of Antiochus in Egypt 
and Judea. 

Ver. 23 : " And after the league made with him, he shall work 
deceitfully ; for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small 
people." 

Josephus says § that " Antiochus circumvented Ptolemy 
by treachery, and seized upon Egypt •" and that he got pos- 
session of Jerusalem without fighting. The prophecy seems 
to allude to a first expedition into Egypt, not clearly dis- 
tinguished from the second in 1 Maccabees. See 2 Mace, 
v. 1. 

Ver. 24 : " He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the 

* 2 Mace. iii. f Appian in Syr. + Athen. I. v. 

§ Antiq. xii. 5, 2. 



376 ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL, 

province, and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his 
fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and 
riches ; yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strongholds, even 
for a time." 

Antiochus expended large sums in games.* " He opened 
also his treasure, and gave his soldiers pay for a year. . . . 
Nevertheless, when he saw that the money of his treasure 
failed, and that the tributes in the country were small, 
because of the dissension and plague which he had brought 
upon the land in taking away the laws which had been of 
old time, he feared that he should not be able to bear the 
charges any longer, nor to have such gifts to give so liberally 
as he did before ; for he had abounded above the kings that 
were before him.-" 1 Mace. iii. 28 — 30. 

Dan. xi. 25 : " And he shall stir up his power and his courage against 
the king of the south with a great army, and the king of the south 
shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army ; but he 
shall not stand, for they shall forecast deviees against him." 

1 Mace. i. 16 : " Now when the kingdom was established 

before Antiochus, he thought to reign over Egypt. . . . 

"Wherefore he entered Egypt with a great multitude . . . 

and made war against Ptolemy king of Egypt . . . but 

Ptolemy fled, and many were wounded to death. Thus they 

got the strong cities in the land of Egypt, and he took the 

spoils thereof." According to 2 Mace. v. 1, this was his 

second expedition into Egypt. 

Ver. 26 : " Yea, they that feed of the portion of his meat shall destroy 
him, and his army shall overflow : and many shall fall down slain." 

Many of the Egyptians were favourable to Antiochus, 
which enabled him to overrun the country with ease after 
the battle of Pelusium. f 

Ver. 27 : " And both these kings' hearts shall be to do mischief, and 
* Polyb. apud Athen. 1. v. f Diod. in Excerp. Vales. 



ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 377 

they shall speak lies at one table ; but it shall not prosper : for yet the end 
shall be at the time appointed." 

Antiochus set Ptolemy Philometer at liberty, and pretended 

great friendship towards him.* 

Dan. xi. 28 : " Then shall he return into his own land with great riches, 
and his heart shall be against the holy covenant, and he shall do exploits, 
and return to his own land." 

The capture of Jerusalem and the profanation of the 
temple are related, 2 Mace. v. 11, in such a manner that 
they might be supposed to happen immediately after the 
second expedition into Egypt ; but the authors of both books 
of Maccabees do not appear to have observed strict chrono- 
logical order in the history of Antiochus. Their main ob- 
ject was to relate his oppressions of the Jews, and they give 
them in a mass, without stopping to notice each intervening 
expedition into Egypt. Hence, the history in Maccabees 
does not run chronologically parallel with the prophecy, 
which notices the different expeditions with more detail ; and 
it is possible that the above entrance into Jerusalem may 
be that alluded to at ver. 30, 31. 

Ver. 29 : " At the time appointed, he shall return, and come toward the 
south, but it shall not be as the former or the latter. 30 : For the ships 
of Chittim shall come against him. 

Antiochus was prevented from completing the subjuga- 
gation of Egypt by the arrival of the Roman ambas- 
sadors, f 

Ver. 30 : " Therefore he shall be grieved and return, and have indigna- 
tion against the holy covenant. So shall he do, he shall even return, 
and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant." 

2 Mace. v. 11 : " Whereupon removing out of Egypt in a 

furious mind, he took the city (Jerusalem) by force of arms." 

* Diod. in Excerp. Vales. f Liv. 1. 45. 



378 ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 

Then follows the slaughter of eighty thousand Jews, and the 
profanation of the temple. Yer. 15 : " Yet was he not con- 
tent with this, but presumed to go into the most holy temple 
of all the world ; Menelaus, that traitor to the laws and to 
his own country, being his guide." The apostacy of many 
of the Jews is described also, 1 Mace. i. 15 : " They made 
themselves uncircumcised, and forsook the holy covenant, 
and joined themselves to the heathen, and were sold to do 
mischief." 

Dan. xi. 31 : " And arms* shall stand on his part, and shall pollute the 
sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they 
shall place the abomination that maketh desolate." 

According to the Septuagint, u aTregixara £? avrov avaaTr\aov- 
rai -" Jerome, " ex eo brachia stabunt." Arms, branches, 
or off- shoots, shall proceed from this wicked root, Anti- 
ochus; for his lieutenants, Philip, Andronicus, Menelaus, 

* Here is the important point of separation with the commentators. 
Bishop Newton, (Diss. xxii. p. 2,) following Sir Isaac Newton, translates 
the first clause, " and after him, arms (that is, the Romans) shall stand 
up;" and informs us that, from this verse, " he " and " the king" mean 
the Romans. It is not easy to see any necessity for thrusting in the 
Romans here, since the explanation can go on much better without them ; 
but if they cannot be introduced here, there is no chance of success after- 
wards ; for the rest of the chapter does not afford even such a miserably 
narrow entrance as the word " arms ;" and then the whole must evidently 
be limited to Antiochus, which would bring on the question whether Jesus 
Christ interpreted Daniel rightly in applying the abomination of desolation 
to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. The Bishop, how- 
ever, having with much effort, and calling on Sir Isaac Newton and Mr. 
Mede to assist him, brought the Romans into the chapter, tries to keep 
them there with this remark : " Our Saviour himself making use of this 
same phrase, the abomination of desolation, in his prediction of the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem, may convince us that this part of the prophecy refers to 
that event." But he candidly allows that what follows applies in part to 
the times of Antiochus. If we be obliged to conclude that this is the only 
rational application of what follows, the inference must be that the author 
of Matthew has misapplied this as well as many other parts of the Old 
Testament, and, in this instance, attributed his own mistake to Jesus 
Christ. 



ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 379 

and Apollonius, will be as bad as himself. " And he left 
governors to vex the nations." 2 Mace. v. 22. The king's 
collector fortified himself in the city of David with a strong 
wall and towers, which became " a place to lie in wait 
against the sanctuary, and an evil adversary to Israel. Thus 
they shed innocent blood on every side of the sanctuary, and 
defiled it." 1 Mace. i. 36, 37. The abomination which 
maketh desolate is explained thus : " Not long after this, 
the king sent an old man of Antioch to compel the Jews to 
depart from the laws of their fathers, and not to live after 
the laws of God ; and to pollute also the temple in Jerusa- 
lem, and to call it the temple of Jupiter Olympius." 2 Mace, 
vi. 1. 

Dan. xi. 32 : " And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he 
corrupt by flatteries ; but the people that do know their God shall be strong 
and do exploits."* 

Antiochus flattered as well as threatened in order to in- 
duce the Jews to change their religion, 2 Mace. vii. 24. 
Mattathias, however, killed the king's commissioner, who 
was compelling some Jews to sacrifice, 1 Mace. ii. 23 : and 
flying with his sons into the mountains, set Antiochus at 
defiance. 

Ver. 33 : " And they that understand among the people, shall instruct 
many : yet they shall fall by the sword and by flame, by captivity and by 
spoil, many days." 

1 Mace. ii. 27 : " And Mattathias cried throughout the 

city with a loud voice, saying, Whosoever is zealous of the 

law, and maintaineth the covenant, let him follow me 

29 : Then many that sought after justice and judgment, went 

down into the wilderness to dwell there 45 : Then 

Mattathias and his friends went round about, and pulled down 

* Interpreted by Bishop Newton concerning the persecution of the 
Christians by the Roman magistrates. 



380 ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 

the altars." Meanwhile the oppressions were continued at 
Jerusalem and other cities. 2 Mace. vi. 8 — 12. 

Dan. xi. 34: " Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a 
little help; but many shall cleave to them with flatteries." 

The resistance of Mattathias, and afterwards of Judas, did 

not for a long time free the nation. It is very likely that 

some should have joined the company of Judas for the sake 

of betraying them : see one instance, 2 Mace. xiii. 21. 

Ver. 35 : " And some of them of understanding shall fall to try them, 
and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end; 
because it is yet for a time appointed." 

Eleazar and other supporters of the law died soon after the 
outbreak of the insurrection. 

Ver. 36 : " And the king shall do according to his will : and he shall 
exalt himself,* and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak mar- 
vellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation 
be accomplished : for that that is determined shall be done." 

1 Mace. i. 21 : " He entered proudly into the sanctuary. 
2 Mace. v. 16 — 20 : " And taking the holy vessels with pol- 
luted hands, and with profane hands pulling down the things 
that were dedicated by other kings to the glory and honour 
of the place, he gave them away. And so haughty was An- 
tiochus in mind, that he considered not that the Lord was 
angry for awhile for the sins of them that dwelt in the city 
.... And as the place was forsaken in the wrath of the 
Almighty, so again the great Lord being reconciled, it was 
set up with all glory." 

Yer. 37 : " Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the 
desire of women, nor regard any god : for he shall magnify himself 
above all." 

* St. Paul appears to quote this passage when speaking of the man of 
sin : 2 Thess. ii. 3, 4. Bishop Newton explains it of the anti-christian 
power which began in the Roman emperors, and continued in the popes. — 
Diss. xvii. part 2. 



ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 381 

The motive of Antiochus in this great persecution will not 
really be to spread the worship of his fathers, but to gratify 
his own vanity. Conceit will be the chief feature of his cha- 
racter. " And thus he that a little afore thought he might 
command the waves of the sea (so proud was he beyond the 
condition of man) and weigh the high mountains in a balance, 
was now cast on the ground." — 2 Mace. ix. 8. 

Ver. 38: "But in his estate shall he honour the god of forces: 
(Mahuzzim, or gods protectors : *) and a god whom his fathers knew 
not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and 
pleasant things." 

Antiochus commanded the temple at Jerusalem to be 
called the temple of Jupiter 01ympius,t and the one at 
Gerizim, the temple of Jupiter the protector of strangers, 
or Xenius. 

Ver. 39 : " Thus shall he do in the most strongholds with a strange 
god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory : and he shall 
cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain." 

1 Mace. ii. 15 : " The king's officers, such as compelled 
the people to revolt, came into the city Modin, to make them 
sacrifice." iii. 45 : " The sanctuary also was trodden down, 
and aliens kept the strong hold." iii. 32 — 36 : " So he left 
Lysias .... that he should place strangers in all their (the 
Jews') quarters, and divide their land by lot." 

Ver. 40 : " And at the time of the end shall the king of the south 

* According to Bishop Newton, the saints and angels worshipped by the 
Greek and Latin churches. 

f Baalsemen summus Phoenicum deus, quern Grseci appellant Aia 
OXvfnriov, quasi translato nomine. Id verum esse apparet ex Dii historia 
Phceni, ubi rov OAvfiiriov Aios ro Upov Tyri dicitur. Item ex Philone Byblio 
in versione Sanchoniathonis, " hunc enim solum Deum existimabant cceli 
dominum, Beelsemen eum appellantes, qui est Phcenicibus Saturnus, Jupiter 
vero Graecis." Recte Macedonibus ignotum, quia neque nomine isto 
Beelsemen, neque eo habitu et potestate quisquam erat in Graecis Deus. — 
Grot. Annot. 



382 ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 

push at him : and the king of the north shall come against him like a 
■whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships ; and 
he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow, and pass over. 41 : 
He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be 
overthrown : hut these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom and Moab, 
and the chief of the children of Ammon. 42 : He shall stretch forth his 
hand also upon the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. 
43 : But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and 
over all the precious things of Egypt : and the Libyans and the Ethiopians 
shall be at his steps." 

Here is a difficulty; because we have no account of any 
further expedition of Antiochus into Egypt. Porphyry, in- 
deed, said that he invaded Egypt again in the last year of his 
reign, and is not contradicted by his opponent Jerome ; but 
he is not supported by any histories extant of Antiochus. 
The description, however, agrees very well with the conquests 
in Egypt recorded in Maccabees. We must suppose, either 
that the writer of the prophecy has, by a slip of memory, 
misplaced these transactions in Egypt, which it was very easy 
to do even for one living near the times, since Antiochus 
made several expeditions into Egypt during his oppressions 
of the Jews ; or, that the historians have not accurately dis- 
tinguished the dates of the expeditions. It is clear that the 
author of the first book of Maccabees only intended to 
allude briefly, and once for all, to the conquests in Egypt; 
and the author of the second book seems hardly more careful 
on this point. The difficulty, however, does not seem to be 
sufficient to invalidate the supposition that the king of the 
north is still Antiochus.* 

Dan. xi. 44 : " But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall 
trouble him ; therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and 
utterly to make away with many." 



* According to Bishop Newton, the king of the north means the Turks, 
and the king of the south the Saracens. — Diss. xvii. part 2. 



ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 

The Parthians in the east, and Armenia in the north, 
revolted ; Antiochus proceeded with a large army to subdue 
them.* 

Ver. 45 : " And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palaces (aphedno) 
between the seas in the glorious holy mountain : yet he shall come to his 
end, and none shall help him." 

According to Theodotion, " He shall fix his tent in Aphe- 
dano, between the seas :" which agrees with the versions of 
Porphyry, Jerome, Houbigant, &c. The 2nd book of Macca- 
bees says that Antiochus died of a disease in the mountains, 
when journeying from Ecbatana. According to Polybius, he 
was forced to put in at a town called Tabse, lying in the 
mountains of Paratsecene, in the confines of Persia and 
Babylonia. Though several particulars remain thus unex- 
plained, the verse applies in the main to Antiochus. 

Dan. xii. 1 : " And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great 
prince which standeth for the children of thy people : and there shall be a 
time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that 
same time : and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that 
shall be found written in the book." 

The protection of Michael, the tutelary angel of Israel, will 
be seen in the deliverance effected by Judas Maccabseus. 
But even after the death of Epiphanes, the Jews will be for 
several years miserably harrassed before their liberty be fully 
established. 2 Mace. x. 10 : " Now will we declare the acts 
of Antiochus Eupator, who was the son of this wicked man 
(Epiphanes), gathering briefly the calamities of the wars." 
1 Mace. ix. 27 : " So was there great affliction in Israel, the 
like whereof was not since the time that a prophet was not 
seen amongst them." 

Dan. xii. 2 : " And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth 
* Prid. Connect., pt. ii. book 3. 



384 ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 

shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting 
contempt. 3 : And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the 
firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for 
ever and ever." 

In all ages some men have been willing to believe the end of 
the world and the resurrection at hand. The writer of this 
prophecy ventures to predict that the deliverance of his nation 
will be followed by a resurrection of the dead. He thereby 
endeavours to console the friends of those Jews who had died 
faithful to the law, and to alarm the apostates. The resur- 
rection of the dead is thus spoken of, 2 Mace. xii. 43 — 45 : 
" Judas sent to Jerusalem to offer a sin offering, doing 
therein very well and honestly, in that he was mindful of 
the resurrection (for if he had not hoped that they that were 
slain should have risen again, it had been superfluous and 
vain to pray for the dead) ; and also in that he perceived that 
there was great favour laid up for those that died godly. (It 
was an holy and good thought.)" 

Ver. 4 : " But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, 
even to the time of the end : many shall run to and fro, and knowledge 
shall be increased. 5 : Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood 
other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on 
that side of the bank of the river. 6: And one said to the man clothed in 
linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the 
end of these wonders ? 7 : And I heard the man which was clothed in 
linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right 
hand, and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever, 
that it shall be for a time, times, and a half (or part) ; and when he shall 
have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things 
shall be finished." 

Commentators agree that a time means a year, and there- 
fore that a time, times, and a half, are three years and a 
half. Counting from the setting up of the idol altar, 25th 
Casleu, 145, to the cleansing of the sanctuary, there were 
exactly three years. Antiochus died soon after; but we have 
not the exact date of his death. The additional half year 



ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 385 

would therefore seem to be sufficient to reach to the end, 
which was supposed to be approaching. 

Ver. 8 : " And I heard, but I understood not : then said I, O my Lord, 
what shall be the end of these things ? 9 : And he said, Go thy way, Daniel : 
for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. 10 : Many 
shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do 
wickedly : and none of the wicked shall understand ; but the wise shall 
understand." 

2 Mace. vi. 12 : "Now I beseech those that read this book, 

that they be not discouraged for these calamities ; but that 

they judge these punishments not to be for destruction, but 

for a chastening of our nation." 

Ver. 11: " And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken 
away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a 
thousand two hundred and ninety days." 

This is nearly a repetition of the seventh verse ; for 1290 

days are 3 years and 195 days.* It seems likely that these 

1290 days are calculated to the death of Antiochus, since the 

next verse mentions 45 additional days, which appear to be 

intended to reach to the " end of the wonders " The phrase 

time, times, and a half (or part), might very well be used to 

express 1335 days, or 3 years and 240 days. 

Ver. 12 : "Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three 
hundred and five and thirty days." 

Since we have not the exact dates, it is impossible to 

ascertain whether the writer alludes to a real occurrence. It 

might be one of the battles with the generals of Antiochus 

Eupator, or the treaty of peace concluded with the Jews 

* The Jews used the lunar year of twelve lunar months, of twenty-nine 
days and a half each, and added the intercalary days every two or three 
years. But in reckoning many years together, they appear to have counted 
by solar years of 365 days each. See Sir I. Newton on the Prophecies ; 
Michaelis on Seventy Weeks, pp. 199, 203. According to Africanus, the 
Jews added three intercalary months at the end of every eight years.— 
Hieron. in Dan. ix. 

2 C 



386 



ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 



by Eupator, or some other event considered of great magni- 
tude at the time, and soon afterwards forgotten. But the 
most obvious meaning is, that the 1335 days are to reach to 
the end of the wonders and the resurrection. As this, how- 
ever, did not happen within that time, the writer, who has 
been very correct in his other predictions, is wrong here; 
and, therefore, he was some one writing within forty-five 
days from the death of Antiochus Epiphanes. 



And thus we have, upon the whole, a very intelligible and 
simple explanation of these parts of Daniel, without being 
obliged to suppose with Bishop Newton that days mean 
years; to metamorphose the king of the north successively 
into the Romans, the Pope, and the Turks; to run through 
the history of the world in search of events to fit the pro- 
phecy; and, at last, to give the matter up by confessing that 
much of it remains yet to be fulfilled.* The bishop's task 
was a difficult one, because he considered that the prophecy 
must be explained so as to save the infallibility of the writers 
of the New Testament ; whereas, if we disregard their version 
of it, and compare it carefully with the history of the times 
of Antiochus, the matter becomes tolerably easy. The abo- 
lition of the Jews' ancient worship, and its restoration by 
Judas Maccabseus, were among the most impressive and 
romantic events in history ; and it is not surprising that at 
such a time men's imaginations should have been much ex- 

* The one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days form one of the 
most difficult problems ; because, even if we agree to call them years, there 
was no remarkable event 1335 years after the setting up of the abomination 
or idol altar by Antiochus, to match with ver. 12. The bishop, therefore, 
conjectures that this abomination means here not what it did before, but 
the imposture of Mahomet, which he began to forge in his cave, A.D. 606 ; 
thus the end of the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five years would 
fall in with A.D. 1941, and commentators would be relieved of this difficulty 
for several generations at least. — See Diss. xvii. p. 362. 



ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 387 

cited, and that mystical and prophetical writings should have 
been published.* Those events, however, gradually retreated 
out of sight, and the common people among the Jews, who 
read very little history, applied the writing as they pleased. 
Thus Matthew applied the " abomination of desolation" to 
the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans ; and the writer 
of the Revelations, following him, ventured a prophecy that 
" the holy city would be trodden under foot by the Gentiles 
forty and two months," that is, three years and a half. Rev. 
xi. 2. But history proves him to be wrong in thus limiting 
the time, whether the days be considered as days or years ; 
whereupon Bishop Newton conjectures, that the forty-two 
months, or one thousand two hundred and sixty days, or one 
thousand two hundred and sixty years, must be calculated 
from the beginning of the Reformation, and that the tread- 
ing of the holy city under foot means the tyranny over the 
church of Christ by the church of Rome, that is, "Christians 
only in name, but Gentiles in worship and practice." Diss, 
xxiv. ch. 11. 



Let us now examine another celebrated part of The vision 

of the four 
Daniel, the vision of the four beasts in the seventh beasts. 

chapter, in which Sir Isaac Newton and other Christian com- 
mentators thought that they found a description of the Roman 
empire, of its division by the barbarous nations, of the pope, 
and of the kingdom of Christ. If it could be shown that the 
writing does clearly describe these things, we must admit it 
to be a real prophecy ; but, in fact, it does not bear more 
than a casual and imperfect resemblance to them;f whilst, 

* " The Jews, after their return from the captivity to the time of our 
Saviour, were much given to religious romances."' — Prideaux Connect. 
Part II. book i. 

f The reader is referred to Sir Isaac Newton on the Prophecies, and 
Bishop Newton's XlVth Diss. 

2 c 2 
1 



388 



ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 



on the contrary, it applies very well to the events up to the 
time of Antiochus. The chief cause of the embarrassment 
of all the commentators appears to be their following Jose- 
phus in interpreting the fourth beast of the Roman empire. 
But Josephus himself might err in explaining an obscure 
writing at least two hundred years old, and the internal 
evidence must weigh more strongly with us than his opinion; 
especially as he does not seem, from his manner of writing, 
to have devoted much study to the question. See Antiq. 
x. xi. 7 .* 

I venture to give a new explanation of it, viz. that the 
second beast means the kingdom of Media, the third Persia, 
and the fourth Macedonia. The difficulties which encumber 
Grotius's explanation of the fourth beast will then vanish, 
and nearly the whole chapter become clear, and in agreement 
with the following part of the book.f 

Dan. vii. 3 : " And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one 
from another. 4: And the first was like a lion, and had eagles' wings; 
and I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from 
the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was 
given to it." 

All agree that this is Babylon, being parallel to the golden 
head of the image, ch. ii. 

Ver. 5 : " And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it 
raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between 
the teeth of it; and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh." 

The kingdom of Media, and not that of the Medes and 



* The concluding remark of Josephus betrays a mixture of carelessness 
with its candour, which could hardly proceed from an earnest critic : 
" Now, as to myself, I have so described these matters as I have found 
them and read them ; but if any one is inclined to another opinion 
about them, let him enjoy his different sentiments without any blame 
from me." 

f Since the first edition of this volume was written, I have learned that 
the above interpretation has been given in several German works. 



ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 389 

Persians united, as is commonly interpreted. This agrees 
with the corresponding place in the vision of the image, 
where the second kingdom is said to be inferior to the first, 
iii. 39, which was true of Media, but not of Persia, which 
surpassed Babylon in extent and power. The kingdom of 
Media, from its short duration, and from its being eclipsed 
by Persia, was lost sight of in later times ; but older authors 
show that it was looked upon as a distinct and powerful 
kingdom before the Persians came into notice. The Jewish 
prophets generally speak of Babylon as conquered by Media. 
Jer. li. 2 : " The Lord hath raised up the spirit of the kings 
of the Medes ; for his device is against Babylon to destroy 
it." Ver. 28 : " Prepare against her the nations with the 
kings of the Medes." Jer. 1. 41, 42 : " Behold a people 
shall come from the north," (this must be Media, and not 
Persia or Elam, which was east of Babylon,) " and a great 
nation, and many kings shall be raised up from the coasts of 
the earth. They shall hold the bow and the lance : they are 
cruel, and will not shew mercy .... against thee, O Baby- 
lon." Isaiah xiii. 17, 18 : " Behold, I will stir up the Medes 
against them, which shall not regard silver, and as for gold, 
they shall not delight in it. Their bows also shall dash the 
young men to pieces, and they shall have no pity on the fruit 
of the womb ; their eye shall not spare children." This 
agrees with the directions given to the bear — " Arise, devour 
much flesh." The Medes revolted from the Assyrians under 
Arbaces, and formed, by their side, an increasing empire. 
Under Phraortes and Cyaxares, they conquered Persia proper, 
the Assyrian kingdom of Nineveh, and all Asia to the east of 
the Halys. (Herodotus, sect, vii.) These are, perhaps, the 
three ribs in the beast's mouth. And, according to Daniel, 
v. 31, Darius the Median took the kingdom of Belshazzar, 
the remaining Assyrian kingdom of Babylon. Herodotus 



390 



ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 



plainly considered the Median and Persian empires as separate 
and distinct ; for he says, " Thus ended the reign of Astyages, 
and the Medes bowed beneath the Persians, after having 
ruled Asia beyond the river Halys one hundred and twenty- 
eight years . . . The Persians under Cyrus, by thus shaking 
off the yoke of Astyages and the Medes, became the masters 
from that time forward of Asia." (Sect, viii.) The two 
nations were, however, often spoken of together in later 
times, both from their resemblance, and because each, during 
its ascendancy, included the other. 

Ver. 6 : " After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had 
upon the back of it four wings of a fowl ; the beast had also four heads, 
and dominion was given to it." 

The kingdom of Persia, and not that of Macedonia, as 
usually supposed. The four wings are perhaps the kingdoms 
of Media, Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt, which were consoli- 
dated into the Persian empire. The four heads agree with 
the four kings of Persia, mentioned chap. xi. 2. But why 
did the writer notice only four of the Persian kings ? Since 
in the 11th chapter he plainly passes at once from Xerxes to 
Alexander the Great, one might suppose that he was im- 
perfectly acquainted with the Persian history, or had forgotten 
it, which was very likely to be the case with a Jew about the 
year 164 B.C. ; for the Jews had not then begun generally 
to study the Greek literature, from which our Persian history 
is chiefly collected. Up to that time, the Jews had attended 
very little to the affairs of other nations, and only noticed 
them incidentally as connected with their own. A regular 
history of Persia being, therefore, wanting in the Jewish 
language, a Jew living two hundred years later than Alex- 
ander might easily commit even the gross mistake of placing 
him immediately after Xerxes.* 






* Since writing the above, I have found the following passage in 



ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 391 

Ver. 7 : " After this, I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth 
beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly ; and it had great 
iron teeth ; and it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue 
with the feet of it, and it was diverse from all the beasts that were be- 
fore it; and it had ten horns," explained thus ver. 23: " The fourth 
beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from 
all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, 
and break it in pieces." Ver. 7 : " And it had ten horns," explained in 
ver. 24 : " And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall 
arise." 

The kingdom of Macedonia, or of the Greeks. Alexander 
is thus described, chap. xi. 3 : " And a mighty king shall 
stand up, and shall rule with great dominion, and do accord- 
ing to his will." And thus, chap. viii. 7 : " And there was 
no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him 
down on the ground, and stamped upon him, and there was 
none that could deliver the ram out of his hand." And 
thus, 1 Mace. ii. : " He reigned the first over Greece, and 
made many wars, and won many strong holds, and slew the 
kings of the earth, and went through to the ends of the earth, 
and took spoils of many nations, insomuch that the earth 
was quiet before him/' 

1 Mace. i. 8, 9 : " And his servants bare rule, every one 
in his place, and after his death they all put crowns upon 
themselves ; so did their sons after them many years, and 
evils were multiplied in the earth." 

Within a year after the death of Alexander, the following 
generals obtained shares of his dominions, — Lysimachus, 
Antipater, Craterus, Ptolemy, Antigonus, Cassander, Me- 
nander, Leonatus, Neoptolemus, Eumenes, Laomedon, Atro- 
pates, Perdiccas, and others of less note ; but they were 

Michaelis, on the Seventy Weeks, p. 112: " The ignorance of the Jews 
concerning the Persian chronology was so great, that they only allowed 
fifty-four years and four kings to the whole Persian dynasty ; nor did the 
inferior Rabbis only make this mistake, but even the most eminent." This 
remark appears to be made by Michaelis, without any reference to the 
chapter which is under consideration. 



392 ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 

incessantly displacing each other, so that, at some period or 
other, the number of principalities may have been exactly 
ten, or the writer may have counted only the chief among 
them. But after a time, the whole were consolidated into 
four great monarchies ; hence the writer might very naturally 
give to the beast ten horns here, and four in another place, 
chap. viii. 8 ; especially as he takes care to distinguish the 
latter as " notable horns." But it is possible that he counted 
the successive rulers of Syria up to the time of Antiochus 
Epiphanes, viz. Laomedon, Ptolemy,* Antigonus, Seleucus 
Nicator, Antiochus Soter, Antiochus Theos, Seleucus Calli- 
nicus, Seleucus Ceraunus, Antiochus the Great, and Seleucus 
Philopator. 

" Ver. 8 : " I considered the boras, and behold there came up among 
them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns 
plucked up by the roots ; and behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes 
of a man, and a mouth speaking great things." Explained ver. 24 : " And 
another shall rise after them (the ten kings), and he shall be diverse from 
the first, and he shall subdue three kings." 

Here we have a proof that we have been following very 
nearly the right road, by arriving in sight of our old ac- 
quaintance, the little horn of chap. viii. and xi., which has 
been shown clearly to be Antiochus Epiphanes. The descrip- 
tion of him here corresponds exactly with that in the above 
chapters, in many places even word for word. The three 
horns plucked up seem to correspond with " it waxed ex- 
ceeding great toward the south, and the east, and the 
pleasant land," viii. 9. 

Ver. 25 : " And he shall speak great words against the Most High, 

* An objection of some weight is, that the first two were not crowned. 
But the opinion of the Jews appears to have been, that the servants of 
Alexander became kings immediately after his death, and even that he 
divided his kingdom amongst them whilst alive. — 1 Mace. i. 6. And it is 
with the Jewish impression of history, rather than with true history, that 
we have to deal in this case. 



ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 393 

and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change 
times and laws ; and they shall he given into his hand until a time and 
times and the dividing of time." 

In chap. xi. 36, Antiochus is to " speak marvellous things 

against the God of gods." In 2 Mace. vi. 1, he endeavoured 

" to compel the Jews to depart from the laws of their 

fathers." And in Dan. xii. 7, his time was to be " a time, 

times, and a half." This is proof as clear as we could wish 

that the little horn is the same personage in all the three 

chapters, vii. viii. xi. 

Ver. 9 : " I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of 
days did sit." ... 11 : "I beheld, then, because of the voice of the great 
words which the horn spake : I beheld even till the beast was slain, and 
his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame." 

The writer here arrives at his own times, and therefore his 
prophecy no longer agrees with history. He begins to in- 
dulge his imagination, and, as in chap, xii., prophesies a 
general judgment as soon to come. 

Ver. 12 : " As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion 
taken away ; yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time." 

The author could not tell how long the other kingdoms 

of Alexander's successors would remain after the death of 

Antiochus, and therefore speaks of their fate in a vague and 

mysterious manner. 

Ver. 13 : "I saw in the night visions ; and behold, one like the Son of 
man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and 
they brought him near before him. 14 : And there was given him dominion 
and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should 
serve him." Explained ver. 27 : " And the kingdom, and dominion, and 
the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the 
people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting 
kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." 

The Gentile nations had been represented by beasts and 
horns of beasts. The author compliments his own nation, 
the people of God, with a more dignified representative, viz. 
" one like the Son of man," and his patriotism gives them an 
universal dominion. 



394 ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL, 

In verse 25, the saints of the Most High are clearly the Jew- 
ish people ; therefore the universal dominion is plainly prophe- 
sied of them as a nation, and not of any one individual. But it 
seems probable that many of the Jews in after-times, either 
by mistake or by way of accommodation, applied the term 
Son of man to the expected Messiah; and hence the adoption 
of that title by Jesus.* 
The vision It would be tedious to examine the vision of the 

of the 

image. great image, ch. ii., in this minute manner. The 

sense is the same as that of the vision of the beasts. The 

head of gold is Babylon; the breast and arms of silver, 

Media ; the belly and thighs (or sides) of brass, Persia ; the 

legs of iron, Macedonia ; the toes, part of iron and part of 

clay, Alexander's successors ; and the stone which filled the 

whole earth, the future kingdom of God's people, the Jews, 

The different pretended prophecies in Daniel thus har- 
monize ; and all establish the same conclusions, viz. that the 
author wrote about the time of the death of Antiochus ; that 
his prophecies up to that time are history, and afterwards 
visionary speculations. 

That the Jewish priests and leaders should have invented 
prophecies and visions to encourage the nation during the 
difficult times of the Maccabees, is probable enough in itself. 
We have, however, one instance given historically, 2 Mace. xv. 
Judas, to encourage his men before the battle of Capharsa- 
lama, told them a dream, " worthy to be believed, as if it had 
been so indeed," says the writer ; and the dream was, that 
the high priest Onias, and the prophet Jeremiah, had ap- 
peared to him, and that the latter had given him a holy 
sword. " Thus being well comforted with the words of 

* Rabbi Saadias, A.D. 927, said, in commenting on this place, " Like 
the Son of man : this is Messiah our righteousness." — See Lightfoot on 
Acts vii. 56. From John xii. 34, it would not appear that the Jews 
generally applied the term thus about the time of Christ. The use of the term 
in Ezekiel shows that originally it had no peculiar relation to the Messiah. 



ON THE TROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 395 

Judas, which were very good and able to stir them up to 

valour, and to encourage the hearts of the young men, they 

determined courageously to set upon them/' &c. If Judas 

could invent a vision concerning Onias and Jeremiah, he, or 

some one else in his time, could as easily invent prophecies 

and visions of Daniel. 

There remains to be considered the prophecy of The seventy 

weeks. 
the seventy weeks, Dan. ix., which has been called 

by Sir I. Newton the foundation of Christianity. Daniel is 

represented as praying in the first year of Darius the Mede, 

which was the last of the captivity, B.C. 538. Gabriel tells 

him, ver. 24, that 

" Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city 
to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make recon- 
ciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal 
up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy." 






And he goes on to divide these seventy weeks as follows 



Ver. 25 : " From the commandment to build again Jerusalem unto 
he Messiah the Prince (Sept. unto the anointed ruler) shall be seven 
weeks 7 

" And threescore and two weeks the street shall be built again, and 
the wall, even in troublous times." ....... 62 

Ver. 26 : " And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be 
cut off, but not for himself (or Messiah shall cut them off,* and they 
shall be no more his people) : and the people of the prince that shall 
come shall destroy the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a 
flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined." 
Ver. 27 : " And he shall confirm the covenant (or a covenant) with 
many for one week ; and in the midst of the week he shall cause the 
sacrifice ^nd the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of 
abominations he shall make it desolate, (or, upon the battlements shall 
be the idols of the desolator,) even until the consummation, and that 
determined shall be poured upon the desolate." . . . . 1 

70 

* Exscindetur vel exscindet Messias, the passive and active future in 
Hebrew being the same. — Mich, on Seventy Weeks, p. 137. 



396 ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 

It is generally supposed that a week means a week of 
years, or seven years ; for the Jews counted their years as 
well as days by sevens, the seventh being the sabbatic year. 
Levit. xxvi. 8. — The latter part of the time evidently applies 
to Antiochus, in whose days many Israelites " made a covenant 
with the heathen/' by means of a licence obtained from the 
king, 1 Mace. i. 11 — 15. He occupied Jerusalem from the year 
143 Seleucidse, or of the kingdom of the Greeks, to 149 (B.C. 
170 — 164), which might be about seven years, or a week of 
years ; in the midst of which time, or towards the end of 145 
(B.C. 168), the sanctuary was laid waste, " the abomination 
of desolation set upon the altar, and idol altars builded on 
every side," ver. 54. Compare these two verses with ver. 
30 — 35, Dan. xi., which have been shown to apply to An- 
tiochus. It appears also, from ch. xii., that the writer ex- 
pected a great deliverance and a resurrection to come soon 
after the death of Antiochus, which agrees with the bringing 
in of everlasting righteousness in ver. 24; consequently the 
death of Antiochus is about the date to which the seventy weeks 
extend. The decree of Cyrus to rebuild the temple, which 
was considered to apply also to the city, (compare Ezra i. 
with 1 Esdras iv. 63,) was given B. C. 536, from which to the 
death of Antiochus we have 372 years. Since the writer calls 
this interval 70 weeks, or 490 years, we must conclude that 
he used a different chronology from ours. 

What he meant by the Messiah or anointed prince is 
difficult to explain, since there was no person in Jewish his- 
tory, from Cyrus to Antiochus, to whom the description 
applies. It seems probable that he meant an allegorical 
representative of the Jewish nation, in the same way as he 
speaks in the next chapter of the prince of Persia and the 
prince of Grecia ; the term Messiah, or anointed, being ap- 
plied to the prince of the Jews, to signify his superior holi- 






ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 397 

ness.* As the coming of the prince of Grecia, x. 30, appears 
to signify the beginning of the sovereignty of the Macedo- 
nians, so the coming of the anointed ruler, or of the rule of 
the anointed (iwg xpivrov iiyovfitvov), and his being cut off,f 
may signify the political regeneration of the Jewish nation 
under Nehemiah till its apparent extinction by Antiochus. 
During that interval Jerusalem was rebuilt, but the times 
were troublous. It is true, that seven weeks, or forty-nine 
years, from B. C. 536, bring us to B. C. 487, which year was 
not distinguished by any remarkable event, being twenty 
years before the return under Ezra. But here again we must 
be content to remain in ignorance, from our not knowing 
the chronology used by the author. 

It has been thought by some that the commandment 
which went forth to restore and build Jerusalem, refers ^to 
the divine decree by the mouth of Jeremiah, B. C. 606, pro- 
mising a return of the Jews after seventy years. Jer. xxix. 
10; xxv. 12; xxvii. 12. .Four hundred and ninety years 
from that date bring us to B.C. 116, as the time predicted 
for bringing in everlasting righteousness and anointing the 
Most Holy. It is remarkable that this is seven weeks, i. e. 
forty-eight to forty-nine years, from the death of Antiochus. 
This coincidence, however, does not enable us to solve the 
prophecy, for this latter subdivision of the time is there 
placed first; and the remaining subdivisions remain still 
unexplained. But there are strong reasons for interpreting 
the commandment only of the decree in the first year of 
Cyrus. This, although an edict of an heathen prince, was 



* Schoettgen (de Messia, cap. i. 26) quotes several works to show that it 
was not unheard of among the Jews to consider Michael the Messiah. This 
would make the verse in question harmonize with x. 21. 

f Theodotion's version, which is that inserted in the modern copies of the 
Septuagint, gives e£o\o0peu0tj<reTat XPW*' tne anointing shall perish. 



398 ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 

considered by the Jews as divinely appointed to fulfil the 
words of Jeremiah ;* it formed one of the most conspicuous 
points in the scriptural history ; it is evident that the writer 
of Daniel has the history in Chronicles and Ezra fully present 
to his recollection ; he says that Daniel prayed in the first 
year of Darius the Mede, which, although usually placed 
about B.C. 538, he seems to consider as the expiration of the 
seventy years, (see ver. 19,) and, consequently, cotemporary 
with the decree of Cyrus, B.C. 536, whilst, on the other 
hand, the promise of Jeremiah, of a future restorer, could 
not with so much exactness be called a going forth of the 
commandment or word to restore and build Jerusalem. 

It is not worth while to drag the reader through the end- 
less commentaries on this prophecy : its difficulty is multiplied 
by the numerous readings both of the words and numbers 
which the different versions supply. Michaelis made a la- 
borious investigation of these ; and by taking three successive 
periods of seventy weeks of years, seventy single years, and 
sixty-two years, he makes the desolation coincide with the 
beginning of the Jewish war, A.D. 66. But he admits that, 
in order to make even this explanation cohere, he was obliged 
to select several unusual readings, depending each on isolated 
manuscripts, and to adopt the somewhat improbable hypothe- 
sis that the years were lunar instead of solar years.f He 
offers his explanation also as a very doubtful one. J 

The point chiefly interesting to us is, whether the prophecy 
agrees with the time of Jesus Christ. 

* See end of Chronicles and beginning of Ezra. 

f "It seems more likely at first sight that solar years are predicted. 
Accordingly, I tried solar years with all the readings ; but comparing the 
prophecy with history, I found no notable event coinciding with those 
years." — Michaelis on the Seventy Weeks, p. 203. 

% " Jam ergo, si lubet, accipe a me, non versionem, sed dubitationes de 
Danielis vaticinio." — Ibid., p. 5. 



ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 399 

Years. 

Now, from the decree of Cyrus b. c. 536 

Deduct 7 weeks or 49 years, and we are not 
near to Jesus Christ ; take the 7 weeks and 
62 weeks together, as the Septuagint does, and 
deduct 69 weeks, or 483 

we have . b. c. 53 

a year which has no relation to Jesus Christ. 

Sir Isaac Newton dates the commandment at Ezra's return 
with a body of Jews in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, or 
4257 of the Julian period, = b. c. 457; add the whole 
490 years, and we have 

4747 or a. d. 34, when (or in a. d. 33) Christ was crucified. 

But, to say nothing of the incorrectness of representing this 
as the end of the Jewish transgressions, (see conduct of the 
Zealots towards the law and temple,) it appears that this great 
commentator could only succeed to this extent in fitting in 
the whole 490 years, at the expense of a complete failure 
in disposing of the subdivisions; for he makes verse 25 
refer to a rebuilding yet to come, and a second coming of 
Christ. 

Others follow Africanus in dating from the twentieth year 
of Artaxerxes, when Nehemiah came to Jerusalem b. c 445 
70 weeks, or 490 years, supposing them lunar years, 
are equal to 475 solar years 475 

a.d. 30 
which is within a few years of the common date of Christ's 
death. 

But in these explanations it is obvious that the date of the 
decree is selected arbitrarily, in order to make the 70 weeks, 
or 69 weeks, fall in with Christ's death. For it has been 
shown that it is unnatural to suppose that any other decree 



400 ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 

could be meant than that of Cyrus, which was given at the 
time when Daniel is said to be praying. If we take the date 
of the word given to Jeremiah b. c. 606, the attempt to ac- 
commodate the time to Jesus Christ will be baffled still more 
completely. 

The text concerning the cutting off of the Messiah is not 
quoted by the apostles, which would lead us to suppose that 
our common reading does not give the sense received in their 
time. But even if it were the true reading, it might be ap- 
plied to any other pretender to the Messiahship who was put 
to death, as well as to Jesus. And this is the only coincidence 
worth noticing. For Jerusalem was taken and profaned many 
times ; and the description of the actions of Antiochus must 
naturally apply in part to those of the Romans. But the de- 
solation which they made under Titus was not immediately 
after the cutting off of Jesus Christ, but thirty-seven years 
later. 



The strong internal evidence that the prophetic parts of 
Daniel were written about the time of Antiochus is not coun- 
terbalanced by any external evidence, as may be seen in the 
review of the arguments on this point in the fourteenth chapter 
of Bishop Newton's Dissertations. 

Although we be convinced by this examination of the book 
of Daniel, that it contains no prophecies concerning Jesus 
Christ, we can at the same time perceive how the disciples 
were led to draw from it, especially after the fall of Jerusalem, 
a strong confirmation of his claims. They knew little or no- 
thing concerning Antiochus, and therefore parts of the book 
seemed to point to the events of their own day, which did in 
reality somewhat resemble those in the time of Antiochus. 
Moreover, Jesus himself assumed the title of Son of Man, 
given to the allegorical representative of the Jewish nation, in 



ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 401 

Daniel. Add to this the text which admitted of the sense that 
the Messiah was to be cnt off, and we need not be surprised 
that more searching critics than the apostles should have con- 
sidered this book as the sure word of prophecy. But to the 
reader who will take the trouble to compare one part with an- 
other, in the manner here pursued, it is left to determine 
whether such a conclusion does not rest upon a total perver- 
sion of the real meaning of the book. 



Whilst the study of the prophecies convinces us of the absurdity of con- 
sidering them as inspired predictions, it at the time enables us to compre- 
hend the interest attached to them which supported the delusion. The sub- 
lime mystery of penetrating into the future is almost equalled by that of 
finding the present already foreknown in the past. The events of the day 
are raised into fulfilments of the divine decrees : an untoward catastrophe 
is softened, success is enhanced, by the proof which prophecy appears to 
bring, that all was appointed by the foreknowledge of God before the world 
began ; and the energy of the agents is heightened rather than relaxed by the 
idea that they are the instruments of destiny, final links of the mysterious 
chain which connects remote foreknowledge and actual fulfilment. 

There are few nations whose early literature does not contain predictions 
and pretended accomplishments of predictions. But Cumas and Delphos 
lost their credit even in ancient times. The supposed Jewish oracles still 
play a conspicuous part in the religion of the day. Yet on comparing them 
elosely with history, accomplishment and failure alternate to such an extent, 
that one important resemblance to their heathen kindred becomes palpable ; 
their credit can only be maintained by preserving their ambiguity. 

Egypt, for instance, which was to be " the basest of the kingdoms," Ezek. 
xxix. 15, (" and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt," xxx. 
13,) was for three centuries, under the Ptolemies, one of the principal mo- 
narchies of the age. Babylon which " shall never be inhabited," apparently 
after its capture by the Medes, " and whose time is near to come," Isaiah 
xiii. 17 — 22, was inhabited by a diminished population for 245 years, until 
the building of the neighbouring city of Seleucia, after which it decayed 
gradually. Ezekiel prophesies that Nebuchadnezzar shall take Tyre, in 
which he is as correct as might be expected from a cotemporary of the event ; 
but he adds " I will make thee like the top of a rock : thou shaltbe a place 
to spread nets upon : thou shalt be built no more," xxvi. 14 : and " when 
I make thee a desolate city," (i.e. evidently from the connexion, on the 
capture by Nebuchadnezzar,) " I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be 
no more ; though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, 
saith the Lord God," ver. 19 — 21. Yet new Tyre, or Tyre of the island, 
considered by Pliny a part of the old city, and which from the description 
of Ezekiel appears to have been by him also included in the general name 
Tyre, continued to be a strong and considerable place long after the time 
of Alexander ; it endured several sieges during the Crusades and afterwards ; 
and has decayed gradually into an inconsiderable place. The " shalt be no 
more " of Ezekiel, repeated several times, is therefore accomplished by the 
decay of the city in the lapse of 2400 years. Bishop Newton explains for 
Ezekiel, that in this case, as in that of Babylon, the prophecy was to take 
effect, not all at once, but by degrees. Modern commentators have disco- 

2d 



402 



ON THE PROPHECIES OF DANIEL. 



vered that, for the most part, the sense of the scripture prophecies can only 
be ascertained after the event. The prophecies against Edom, Moab, Ammon, 
&c. are evidently for the most part history ; but when they reach into the 
future, limitations and exceptions are required. (See Jer. xlix. 1 8, on Edom.) 
The prophets delivered copious denunciations against all the nations and dis- 
tricts which annoyed the Jews. If a modern poet were to prophesy destruc- 
tion and desolation under various figures against a dozen neighbouring 
towns or nations, who would be surprised to find after 2500 years an equal 
average of fulfilment ? 

The instance most resembling fulfilment is that of Jeremiah's prophecy, 

" Fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, though I make a full end of 

all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of 
thee," xxx. 11. Yet this is merely a natural patriotic wish, and it has not 
been fulfilled in the sense probably contemplated by Jeremiah ; for a full 
end has been made of the Jews, as a nation, as completely as of Babylon. 
It is certainly true that the preservation of the Jews, as a distinct race, 
leaves a possibility of the more complete fulfilment of the prophecy at a 
future time. It is connected, however, with two others which were not 
fulfilled, viz. the high degree of security which Jacob should enjoy after 
his return from the Babylonish captivity, and the raising up of another 
David. 

Another instance approaching to fulfilment is the spread of the Jewish 
religion or light among the Gentiles. Yet here also the prophecy was a 
natural patriotic wish, and it was very far from being exactly fulfilled 
according to the original meaning ; for the Judaism which the Gentiles 
received was very different from the Jewish law which the prophets seem 
to have had in view (Isaiah xlii. 4, 21 ; Micah iv. 2) : neither did the Gen- 
tiles come bending to receive it from Mount Zion. " For the nation and 
kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish, yea those nations shall be 
entirely wasted." Isaiah lx. 12. Instead of this the Jews perished, because 
they would not serve the Romans. 

As to the New Testament fulfilling the prophecies of the Old, — in the 
two most conspicuous features of Jewish prophecy there could not be a 
more decided failure. A triumphant successor of David was promised, and 
a carpenter's son was crucified. Zion was to be exalted, and Zion was de- 
molished. Nor were the Christian prophecies more fortunate. — The Son 
of man was to appear again before that generation passed away, and he has 
not yet appeared. 

The cause of failure here is not the same as when predictions of natural 
phenomena fail ; i. e. want of skill in the interpreters. No one pretends 
that a greater skill in the language of the prophecies would clear up these 
contradictions; that the reader of the common version, on acquiring suffi- 
cient Hebrew and Greek, would see things in a greatly different light. 
Unless he admit that wide figurative interpretation, which expands indefi- 
nitely the meaning of words, he must conclude that the voice prophesying 
through these records is different from that prophesying in nature, in as 
much as the one is always right, the other sometimes right and sometimes 
wrong. 

The iEneid contains many prophetical allusions to the affairs of Rome, 
and in the sixth book the shade of Anchises shows himself well acquainted 
with Roman History up to the time of Augustus, but attempts to foretel 
nothing beyond it. From passages of this kind the common reader would 
have inferred the time of the writer to be about or after that date. But 
suppose that Virgil had concealed his name and date, and that some reli- 
gious interest were attached to the belief in the divine inspiration of his 
writings ; it would then be taken for granted that the author lived at the 
beginning, not the end, of the prophecy, and the whole poem might by 
the allegorizing system be easily converted into a prophetical type. If the 






ON THE PROPHECIES OP DANIEL. 403 

interpreter were a Catholic, the victories of the Trojan hero might pre- 
figure the small heginnings of the Roman see on the same plains of 
Latium ; his pious abandonment of the Carthaginian queen being exactly 
the type of Papal Rome's compulsory separation by divine decree from its 
mistress Constantinople. The prediction of Anchises, " Tu regere imperio 
populos, Romane, memento," was fully verified, as Peter's pence could 
bear witness. " Coelique meatus describent alii melius," Galileo proved to 
be true. ** Debellare superbos," how exactly fulfilled in the person of the 
Emperor Henry IV., and " parcere subjectis," in the lenity shown by 
Pius VII. towards Napoleon, who was, or ought to have been, spiritually 
his subject! Certainly a Papist, who might be inclined thus to turn 
Virgil to account, would find less labour than has been encountered by 
Protestant divines, with the Book of Daniel, for the sake of identifying the 
Pope with the " man of sin." 

But it is said by Christians that many of the prophecies remain yet to be 
fulfilled. This may very probably come to appear true as events pass on, 
for the continued vicissitudes of things may naturally increase the number 
of apparent correspondences ; and there is besides this a deeper reason. 
Written prophecy itself, if embodied in the literature of a nation, becomes 
a cause of no small power, and may contain amongst its effects tendencies 
to its own fulfilment. The anticipations of ancestors, the aspirations of 
patriots, and the visions of poets, when expressed in the shape of prophecy, 
may awaken in some breasts a more ardent desire to give the response. 
Instances are on record of attempts made with a view to fulfil ancient pro- 
phecies.* And considering the permanent interest which the Hebrew 
literature has excited amongst its own and other nations, it is highly pro- 
bable that its prophecies will go on producing a concurrence of inclinations 
to witness their fulfilment, till at last, in a more closely corresponding 
sense than hitherto, " the tribes of Jacob shall be raised up, and instead of 
the thorn shall come up the fir-tree in his heritages, and the desolations of 
Israel shall be repaired, and his wastes inhabited." 

* Onias, who built the temple at Heliopolis to fulfil Isaiah xix. 19, one 
instance. The rebuilding of the temple by Cyrus to fulfil the Jewish pro- 
phecies would be another ; but the historical truth of Josephus in this 
account may be doubted. A kindred case is that of Columbus, who 
r believed his great discoveries announced in the Apocalypse and Isaiah, 
aud identified the mines of Hispaniola with the golden quarries which 
furnished materials to Solomon." — Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella, 
vol. iii. p. 27. 



2d2 



( 404 ) 



CHAPTER XV. 

WHETHER JESUS FORETOLD HIS OWN DEATH AND 
RESURRECTION. 

Matthew says, xvi. 21, "From that time forth/' (viz. soon after 
Herod sought to apprehend Jesus,) " began Jesus to show unto 
his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer 
many things of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and 
be killed, and be raised again the third day." And again, xx. 
17, "And Jesus going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve dis- 
ciples apart in the way, and said unto them, Behold we go up 
to Jerusalem ; and the Son of Man shall be betrayed unto 
the chief priests, and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn 
him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, 
and to scourge, and to crucify him : and the third day he 
shall rise again." Similar predictions occur, Matt. xvi. 24, 
xvii. 22, xxvi. 2, xxvi. 32. " But after I am risen again, I will 
go before you into Galilee." Mark viii. 31, ix. 9, 31, x. 32, 
xiv. 28. Luke ix. 22, 44, xiii. 33, xviii. 31. John vii. 8, viii. 
28, &c. 

This was speaking so plainly that we cannot imagine how 
the disciples could have misunderstood him. However firm 
might have been their first expectation of a temporal Messiah, 
they must have been strangely inattentive not to be prepared 
for things of which they had been warned so often and so 
clearly. As the history stands, they seem to have treated the 
admonitions of Jesus on such interesting points with a care- 
lessness almost irreverent. Luke says, ix. 45, " They under- 
stood not this saying, and it was hid from them." But this 
may be merely his own reflection, and the explanation which 



WHETHER JESUS FORETOLD, ETC. 405 

he chose to suggest in order to account for the strangeness of 
the disciples' conduct. The explanation, however, is by no 
means satisfactory, since the language attributed to Jesus is 
very intelligible. 

Immediately after the supposed confidential prediction of his 
sufferings to the twelve, Matt. xx. 20, two of these very twelve 
come to ask for seats on the right and left of his throne. 
They all frequently dispute which shall be the greatest. They 
seem full of hope and expectation until they reach Jerusalem. 
They think more of their twelve thrones over the twelve tribes 
of Israel than of death and suffering. When nigh to Jerusa- 
lem, they expect the kingdom of God to appear immediately ; 
and when, at last, Jesus is taken and put to death, exactly 
according to the supposed predictions, they all seem taken by 
surprise, and forsake him. Cleopas is represented as saying, 
" The chief priests and our rulers have crucified him. But we 
trusted that it had been he ivhich should have redeemed Israel ;" 
showing clearly surprise and disappointment at his death, 
which seemed to have ended the matter. They were so far 
from expecting him to rise again, that most of them were with 
difficulty induced to believe it, even when they were told that 
he was risen. And John himself unconsciously gives a final 
contradiction to these stories of predictions, by saying of the 
disciples who came to the sepulchre, xx. 9, " For as yet they 
knew not the Scriptures , that he must rise again from the dead" 
Can it be believed that any of the disciples, much less the 
whole body of them, would have quite forgotten such a thing, 
if it had really been foretold to them so clearly and so 
often ? 

This discrepancy between the disciples' conduct and the 
supposed predictions is so palpable, that fiction appears mani- 
festly in one or the other. And it is the more natural to infer 
it in the latter; for the disciples loved to represent every ac- 



406 WHETHER JESUS FORETOLD 

tion of Jesus as the fulfilment of prophecy, and especially his 
death, by which means the greatest cause of scandal was con- 
verted into an evidence in his favour. As he himself also 
bore the character of a prophet, nothing could appear more 
for his honour and dignity than to predict whatever was re- 
markable in his own career ; for thus reverses and death, in- 
stead of baffling him, appeared as ministers to the fulfilment 
of his own predictions.* 

The charm of marvellousness which is thrown into a narra- 
tive by linking events with predictions, induced Herodotus, 
Josephus, and other historians prone to embellish, to indulge 
largely in this kind of poetical fiction. The writers of the 
four Gospels had a stronger temptation to put their own his- 
torical knowledge into the mouth of Jesus in the shape of 
prophecy ; and accordingly numerous events in the history of 
Jesus are preceded by a closely agreeing prediction ; for in- 
stance, the denial by Peter, the betrayal by Judas, the finding 
of the colt, the selection of the room for the passover ; a few 
circumstances being added to make the accounts coherent, 
such as any writer of tolerable imagination might have sup- 
plied. Gradual exaggeration rather than wilful fiction might, 
however, in many cases, explain the manner in which the ac- 
count originated. For example, it appears, from the re- 
proaches of the multitude, that Jesus had said, " Destroy this 
temple, and in three days I will build it again." John sees 
in this, after the event, a prediction by Jesus of his own death 
and resurrection ; and it is easy to imagine that, in passing 
through several narrations, it might have been enlarged into 
as complete a prophecy as that in Matt. xx. 17. 

On the other hand, the contemplation by Jesus of his own 

* John xiii. 19, " Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to 
pass, ye may believe that I am he." xiv. 29, "And now I have told you be- 
fore it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe." 






HIS OWN DEATH AND RESURRECTION. 407 



death is mingled in so many ways with his sayings and ac- 
tions after his last departure from Galilee, and the institution 
of the last supper is so standing a memorial of his having in 
some degree foreseen it, that there seems to be some mixture 
of truth in the above narratives. 

The most probable conclusion appears to be, that Jesus 
began to contemplate the possibility of his death, when he 
found himself compelled, by the ill-will of Herod, to leave 
Galilee, and that he began then to warn his followers that no 
one who was unprepared to risk his life was fit for the kingdom 
of God ; that after his arrival at Jerusalem it became daily 
more evident to him that he must suffer as a seditious inno- 
vator, and that his last discourses contained many anticipations 
of his approaching fate. 

It is evident that he could not have given any clear an- 
nouncement on this subject whilst in Galilee, because up to 
the time of his arrival at Jerusalem the disciples expected that 
the kingdom of God would immediately appear. They con- 
tinued to expect a temporal throne even much later. Some 
occasional and ambiguous hints dropped by him concerning 
the dangers to be expected at Jerusalem, being remembered 
after his death, might have given rise to the belief that he 
spake of his death " when he was yet in Galilee/ 5 Luke xxiv. 
6. Also, the style of some real discourses shortly before his 
death may have been transposed to occasions much earlier. 
For it appears very clear that none of the Evangelists had 
much regard to the order of time or place in relating the dis- 
courses of Jesus. There was no reporter at hand to take 
down these discourses as they were delivered. They must have 
been repeated by the disciples from memory, and could have 
been preserved only by tradition, until some one undertook 
to write them down. Whilst this loose method of preserving 
them prevailed, the sayings of Jesus were probably much altered, 



408 WHETHER JESUS FORETOLD 

and accommodated to the new ideas which became prevalent in 
the church. It is not unlikely even that many sayings gradually 
became current as his, which never proceeded from him in any 
shape. During the interval of nearly forty years between his 
death and the writing of Matthew's Gospel, the Christian 
church had become familiarized to the idea that his death 
happened in fulfilment of prophecy, and was contemplated by 
himself as part of his mission. It was very natural, then, for 
an advocate of the sect, at the latter period, to represent 
Jesus himself as preaching in accordance with these notions. 

The following language attributed to Jesus bears the im- 
press of fiction. Matt. xii. 40, "As Jonas was three days 
and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of 
Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the 
earth." In the story of Jonah, there is no reason to doubt 
that the time was literally what is written, Jonah i. 17; 
but Jesus was in the tomb only from Friday night until 
Sunday morning, or one day and two nights. There is no 
evidence that this interval could have been called, in common 
Jewish phraseology, rpziq rnuepag kcu rpeig vvktciq. Even 
though this mode of computation were used for some legal 
purposes, a prophet would not select language conveying in 
the obvious sense a mistake ; but it agrees with the style of 
Matthew to sacrifice correctness as to facts for the sake of 
accommodating the precise words in Jonah to Christ. Mark 
perceived, probably, the absurdity, since he has omitted the 
allusion to Jonas. Luke has preserved it, wording it so as to 
avoid the more glaring part of the inconsistency. Luke xi. 
30, " For as Jonas was a sign to the Ninevites, so shall also 
the Son of Man be to this generation." * 

* In the Gemara there is much discussion concerning the duration of 
the three oune (noctiduiim, vuxOri/xepov) allowed for ceremonial uncleanness. 
There was a tradition that R. Eliezer ben Azariah had said, " A day and a 



HIS OWN DEATH AND RESURRECTION. 409 

night make up the oune, and a part is as the whole ;" with which R. Ismael 
agreed. But R. Jochanan and Akiba said, that either a day or a night 
constituted an oune. — See Lightfoot. The difficulty of determining the 
point seems to show that Eliezer's method of calculation was not in common 
use. The only argument brought by Rosenmuller in favour of such a sup- 
position is, that the apostles did not encounter objections from the Jews on 
this subject. Jerome (on Jonah i. 17,) admits the difficulty of the passage 
in Matthew, and says that the parts of each 24 hours must be considered 
as the whole ; but he quotes no Jewish visage in proof, and concludes thus : 
" Certainly this seems to me the explanation ; but if any one does not adopt 
it, and can give a better exposition, his opinion ought to be preferred." 

It is true that Christ is often said to have risen the third day, and the 
Jews might have expressed this "risen after three days." But the addition 
"and three nights" renders the place clearly the studied parallel of Jonah 
i. 17 ; and this use of the prophet is more natural to the evangelist than to 
Jesus. 



( 410 



CHAPTER XVI. 

ON THE CHARACTER, VIEWS, AND DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 

The histories which have come down to us of the life of 
Christ are scanty, and, as has been shown, in all probability 
much mixed with fable and with the ideas of later times. 
Still they present to us a character so peculiar and so strongly 
marked, as to force upon us the impression that it was a real 
one. Even though the supposition that there never was such 
a person as Jesus Christ were not manifestly absurd in an 
historical view, the existence of the books before us might be 
sufficient to convince us that it must be abandoned; for 
invention generally falls into some well-known track of ideas ; 
and it is in the highest degree improbable that several writers 
could concur in an accordant and well-sustained delineation 
of a singular, but yet wholly imaginary, character. The 
attentive perusal of the four Gospels leaves, then, the con- 
viction, that Jesus really lived ; and, further, that there was 
in him a combination of traits which do not frequently meet 
in the same individual, the result being a character which 
has few or no parallels in history. It has been often said 
that this singularity of character does itself afford an evi- 
dence of the divinity of his mission. But the inference is 
unwarrantable, unless it can be proved that the character 
contains something necessarily superhuman ; whereas it may, 
perhaps, be shown that each feature of it is resolvable into 
the operation of feelings and powers common, more or less, 
to all men, influenced by the circumstances in which he was 
placed. The supernatural character and offices attributed to 






ON THE CHARACTER, VIEWS, ETC. 411 

Jesus have generally prevented Christians from examining 
this question freely ; any other language than that of pane- 
gyric or homage has been deemed by them unsuitable and 
irreverent ; and a kind of halo has thus been thrown around 
the founder of Christianity, which has contributed to the dif- 
ficulty of seeing him in his natural aspect. Let us be on our 
guard no less against the over-strained admiration of his 
followers than against the attacks of his opponents, and en- 
deavour to penetrate through all that confuses or dazzles the 
sight, in order to gain a distinct view of the carpenter's son 
of Nazareth. 

I. Jesus was an enthusiast. This was not an un- An enthu- 
siast. 
natural effect of the study of the Jewish scriptures. 

He had heard or read from his infancy the history and prophetic 
writings of his country, which, from their sacred associations, 
their antiquity, their record of miraculous interpositions, their 
claim to divine inspiration, and their wild imagery, were of a 
nature most impressive to the imagination. The prophetic 
writings were especially of this character ; their real origin 
and meaning were imperfectly known ; the people considered 
them, and the scribes pretended to consider them, as divine 
oracles. From the time of the Maccabees, the prophets, as 
well as the law, had been established in popular veneration, 
and to question the authority of either was equivalent to de- 
nying the national creed, and forsaking the first principles of 
religion. Such scepticism never entered into the minds of 
the religiously educated Jews, like Jesus. He, therefore, 
read the books of Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, Zechariah, 
and Malachi, not as interesting poetical remains, but as ora- 
cles of great and pressing import, as foretelling fearful signs 
and wonders, and mighty revolutions to be accomplished in 
the latter times. One principal topic of these books is the 
general perfection and happiness of the world at some distant 



412 OX THE CHARACTER, VIEWS, 

age. This subject has interested the feelings and exercised 
the imagination of many men in all countries ; but in the 
books in question it was combined with other topics peculiarly 
animating to the Jews, viz. that the chosen people were to be 
the instruments of God for bringing the world to the true 
worship ; and that in the new sera the throne of Israel would 
be restored by a second David, and all former monarchies 
surpassed by the splendour of the kingdom of the saints of 
heaven, and of God. That such a belief, sanctioned by all 
the authority of their national religion, should have been 
highly exciting to the Jews under a foreign yoke, is less sur- 
prising than that any could have remained unmoved by it. 
vThen Jesus was eight years old, all Judea was roused by the 
bold doctrines of Judas and Sadduc ; and it cannot be doubted 
that the precepts and example of his countryman must have 
exercised a potent influence over the poetic mind of the young 
Galilean. By dwelling long upon a favourite project, the 
mind easily acquires the belief that it has a secret mission to 
fulfil it ; and thus Jesus, from contemplating the kingdom of 
God, was led to believe himself to be the predestined king. 
This idea of his own mission was confirmed by the power 
which he found his preaching to possess over the multitudes, 
and the apparent success of his compliance with their peti- 
tions to expel demons. 

Such an enthusiasm was by no means irrational in one 
situated like Jesus. On the contrary, admitting the inspira- 
tion of the prophets, the strictest reasoner must allow that 
the views of Jesus were well grounded ; and then it becomes 
merely a sign of mental vigour, that he acted according to 
them. 

It may be said, that such an enthusiasm would have given 
way at the prospect of sufferings and death. But this is not 
evident. Under the character of prophet and messiah, Jesus 



AND DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 413 

had traversed Galilee, and attached to himself many followers; 
his belief in his divine mission had been confirmed by the 
elevation conceded to him by those around him ; and that 
which was at first enthusiasm became a settled principle of 
action. Besides, to men of a high tone of character, intent 
upon great objects, and especially believing, like Jesus, in the 
immortality of the soul, the prospect of death has much less 
terror than that of an inglorious retreat. Considering the 
position arrived at by Jesus when Herod was about to arrest 
him, we should be prepared to see a more surprising pheno- 
menon in a sudden renunciation of his claims and a retire- 
ment into disgraceful obscurity, than in his actual proceeding 
to Jerusalem at the risk of his life. On approaching the 
city, and on perceiving that still the kingdom of heaven did 
not appear, that no sufficient human or divine aid was near 
to effect the regeneration which he had hoped to bring to 
Israel, he began to look upon his fate as inevitable, and, as it 
approached nearer, prepared to meet it with a dignity be- 
coming the character he had assumed. Enthusiasm is, to a 
certain degree, flexible; and Jesus being forced to see the 
hopelessness of the immediate coming of the Messiah's king- 
dom, adapted his views to the course of events, and taught 
that the Messiah must suffer before he should reign. To his 
associates he was still the Messiah ; he promised them here- 
after the kingdom which it was plain they would not obtain 
immediately ; and to the last maintained, and believed, that 
he was the Son of Man predicted by the prophets, who was 
to come on the clouds of heaven, to introduce the kingdom 
of the saints. Dan. vii. 13, 14. 

II. Jesus was a revolutionist. He expected to A revolu- 
tionist, 
be king of the Jews, and to restore the kingdom 

of Israel. This appears from his lamentation over Jerusalem, 

Matt, xxiii. 37, " How often would I have gathered thy 



414 OX THE CHARACTER^ VIEWS, 

children together, and ye would not ?' from his selecting the 
number twelve for his apostles, in agreement with the num- 
ber of the tribes, and of seventy for the disciples, who went 
to proclaim him, in imitation of the number of the Jewish 
Sanhedrim; from his promising twelve thrones to the dis- 
ciples; and from his assuming the titles, Son of David, 
Messiah, King of Israel, and King of the Jews. The latter 
was the office of the Messiah most dwelt upon in the pro- 
phets, and most currently attributed to him in popular 
opinion. All this confirms the truth of part, at least, of the 
accusation brought against him, viz. " He stirreth up the 
people, teaching throughout all Jewry, beginning from 
Galilee, to this place, saying that he himself is Christ, a 
king," Luke xxiii. 2, 5. " And Pilate asked him, saying, 
Art thou the king of the Jews ? And he answered him, 
and said, Thou sayest it." * This admission of Jesus 
himself, together with the notoriety of the fact, induced 
Pilate to inscribe on the cross, " This is the king of the 
Jews." Xow it is evident that the title, " King of the Jews," 
or of Israel, was understood in its obvious and literal sense 
by the Jewish populace, and also that this sense was included 
in the character attributed by the prophets to the Messiah. 
Since Jesus in assuming the title, and during the whole of 
his career, allowed it to be understood in its current accepta- 
tion, it is very improbable that he himself should have taken 
it in a sense so unthought of as that of a merely spiritual 
king. 

It seems likely that he expected a popular movement to 

* According to Schoettgen, this was a solemn form of affirmation, of 
which he quotes two instances. Berachoth Hier. citante Wagenseil ad 
Sota, p. 1001. The Zipporenses asked if R. Judah were dead. The son 
of Kaphra answered, Ye have said. — Hieros. Kilaim, fol. 32, 2. They said 
to him, Is the Rahbi dead ? He answered, Ye have said. — See Horse 
Hebraicse in Matt. xxvi. 25. 



AND DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 415 

follow his preaching, towards the beginning of his career, in 
Galilee ; for the main purport of this preaching was to urge 
the people to prepare for the kingdom of heaven, and for a 
sign of adherence, he required his converts to follow him. 
Matt. iv. 19, 25, viii. 22, ix. 9, x. 38. This agrees with the 
complaint of Josephus, Ant. xx. viii. that men pretending to 
divine inspiration induced the multitude to follow them into 
the wilderness, pretending that God would show them signals 
of liberty, or deliverance. Such solemn warnings of the 
approach of the kingdom as Jesus delivered to whole towns 
and provinces, imply that he intended more than merely to 
require preparation for the reception of purer moral and 
spiritual doctrines. If he had intended only this, he would 
surely have refrained from using language which, in the 
existing temper of the nation, was so likely to be mistaken 
for a promise of national deliverance. The appearance of 
other pretenders of this kind made it the more necessary to 
distinguish his mission carefully from theirs, if it were in 
reality intended to be of a totally different character. 

The injunctions given so frequently, to follow him, agree 
with the accusation " he stirreth up the people," and indicate 
that Jesus expected the coming of some extraordinary event, 
such as a national regeneration, which would interfere with 
the common routine of life, and which was so near at hand 
that men, in order to prepare for it, must forsake their occu- 
pations, kindred, and all that they had, not looking back 
even to perform the most pressing ordinary duties. " And 
another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first 
to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow 
me, and let the dead bury their dead." Matt. viii. 21, 22. 
" And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee ; but let 
me first go bid them farewell which are at home at my house. 
And Jesus said unto him, No man having put his hand to the 



416 ON THE CHARACTER, VIEWS, 

plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." 
Luke ix. 61, 62. " If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that 
thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have trea- 
sure in heaven : and come and follow me." Matt. xix. 21. 
" Every one that hath forsaken houses, or* brethren, or 
sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, 
for my name's sake, shall receive an hundred fold,, and shall 
inherit everlasting life." Matt. xix. 29. "If any man will 
come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross,* 
and follow me." Ch. xvi. 24. This interruption of the com- 
mon business of life was quite unnecessary for the introduc- 
tion of a purer creed of religion and morals. This end might 
have been effected by simply preaching at each town or 
synagogue, the hearers being exhorted, as they were by Paul 
in later times, to continue in the vocations wherewith they 
had been called. What could Jesus do with crowds of fol- 
lowers, and what motive could he have for encouraging an 
excitement which must bring so much inconvenience and 
hazard upon himself, unless he really expected that some 



* The preceding chapter tends to prove that this is one of those speeches 
in which the writer has allowed himself to introduce his own knowledge of 
subsequent events. That Jesus did not really use these words concerning 
the taking up of the cross, is inferred from the inconsistency of such pre- 
dictions with many important parts of his history. But that he said the 
rest, or something equivalent to it, may be admitted from its agreeing not 
only with numerous other injunctions of the same kind, but with some of the 
principal events in his history ; for multitudes did follow him, and this was 
one of the grounds of the accusation which led to his death. It is true, 
that conclusions arrived, at in this manner cannot, in most cases, be con- 
sidered as more than highly probable conjectures; but it has been already 
represented to the reader, that the materials remaining for the life of Jesus, 
do not, in many parts, admit of more than this. Those who have once 
allowed that there may possibly be an admixture of fiction in the report of 
the speeches of Jesus, must either renounce the whole as being of too 
doubtful authority to deserve attention, or endeavour to separate the truth 
from the fiction by a careful analysis. 



AND DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 417 

extraordinary change in the state Of the nation was about to 
take place ? 

The exhortations to follow him are too frequent and too 
general to allow us to suppose that they were intended only 
for a few select disciples. Multitudes did follow him, and 
evidently with his permission and sanction. Matt. ix. 36, 
xii. 15, xv. 32, xix. 2. But after they had accompanied him 
for some time, he occasionally found it necessary, from fatigue 
or from a sense of inconvenience, to avoid them, or to send 
them away. The expectation of the kingdom was not suffi- 
cient to maintain crowds in the deserts ; and in the absence 
or delay of signs from heaven, they must, of necessity, be 
dismissed. Matt. xiii. 36, xiv. 22. 

After he had preached through most of the cities of 
Galilee, he began to upbraid Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Ca- 
pernaum, because they repented not; and, according to 
Matthew, it was at that time that he uttered the prayer, 
" I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because 
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and 
hast revealed them unto babes," xi. 25. Since he had been 
preaching to these cities to prepare for the kingdom of God, 
and since in the case of individuals he required some sign of 
adherence to himself, such as a profession of faith, or follow- 
ing him, it seems probable that by the repentance which he 
required of the towns, he meant not only the expression of 
contrition, but a recognition of his authority, and some 
public demonstration of preparation for the kingdom which 
he was about to introduce. This would account for the re- 
pulsive conduct of the towns of Galilee. The allusion to the 
ignorance of the " wise and prudent" in the prayer imme- 
diately following, seems to be a reproof directed against the 
men of influence and authority in those towns for their re- 
jection of him. It was quite natural that the magistrates, 

2 E 



418 ON THE CHARACTER, VIEWS, 

rulers of synagogues, Pharisees, and other persons of weight, 
on whom rested the responsibility of preserving order in the 
province, should share the feelings of the priests at Jerusa- 
lem, and, in later times, of Josephus, and be anxious to curb 
rather than encourage the inclination of the multitude, to 
look for sudden political innovations and changes, whether 
to be brought about by human or superhuman means. Jesus, 
coming amongst them with the warning that the kingdom 
was nigh at hand, resembled too nearly Judas the Galilean, 
and later innovators, to be looked upon otherwise than with 
coldness and suspicion;* and these pressing political con- 
siderations made the chief men in each town, with a few 
exceptions, disregard that which was superior and more 
innoxious in the claims of Jesus — the character of moral 
teacher and prophet. That which is of least interest to us, 
the political aspect of the proceedings of Jesus, was to them 
necessarily of most urgent importance. 

There is a passage in Luke somewhat at variance with 
this view of the expectations of Jesus. " And when he 
was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God 
should come, he answered them, and said, The kingdom of 
God cometh not with observation. Neither shall they say, 
Lo here ! or lo there ! for, behold, the kingdom of God is 
within (or among) you." Luke xvii. 20, 21. But this pas- 
sage occurs as the introduction to a discourse which alludes 



* This suspicion was strongly expressed, after the arrival at Jerusalem, 
in the question, " Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not ?" The 
Galileans, whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices, Luke xiii.l, 
were probably more open promulgators of the doctrines of Judas, because 
the procurators seldom interfered with the Jewish rites, unless the assem- 
blies bore a seditious appearance. The answer of Jesus expresses no small 
degree of sympathy. Those Galileans were not to be considered sinners 
any more than men who might have met their fate by an untoward acci- 
dent ; but all who did not repent at his preaching, would as surely meet a 
similar fate, and in such a case justly. 



AND DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 419 

very plainly* to the siege of Jerusalem, and seems, therefore, 
to be one of those which we must regard as expressing more 
of the views of the writer's own time than of those of Jesus. 
By the time of the siege of Jerusalem, it had been seen that 
the kingdom which Jesus had announced as nigh at hand 
had not come with that open display which was at first 
expected; and it was therefore supposed to consist in the 
gradual and noiseless spread of his doctrine and church. Of 
the same character, probably, is the passage, " The law and 
the prophets were until John : since that time (i. e. until the 
siege of Jerusalem) the kingdom of God is preached, and 
every man presseth into it." Luke xvi. 16. 

If, however, the passage just quoted seem to render it 
doubtful whether Jesus himself expected some approaching 
national change, when he preached throughout the country 
that the kingdom of God was nigh, — where can we find evi- 
dence more decisive than the testimony of the disciples, who 
had heard Jesus himself, and consequently were better able 
to judge what his meaning was than readers who are obliged 
to gather it from a collection of interpolated fragments ? Now 
Luke says, that when they approached Jerusalem, "they 
(meaning apparently the disciples, f or including them) thought 
that the kingdom of God should immediately appear," xix. 
11. That their idea of the kingdom included a national de- 
liverance, is proved by the speech attributed to Cleopas, " we 



* Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered to- 
gether. 

f Compare xviii. 34, with this verse. The avrovs of ver. 11, might, accord- 
ing to the rules of composition, refer to the awavres of ver. 7, all the company. 
But nothing indicates that Luke intends to except the twelve as not sharing 
the delusion. The whole strain of the narrative is to the contrary purport, 
as well as the demand of James and John in the other evangelists. The 
words because they were nigh Jerusalem, imply that he addressed especially 
those who had been his companions during the journey thither. 

2 e 2 




420 ON THE CHARACTER, VIEWS, 

trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Is- 
rael," and that supposed to be spoken by the apostles at the 
ascension, " Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom 
to Israel V It is a violent and unwarrantable hypothesis to 
suppose that the constant attendants upon Jesus had grossly 
misunderstood him concerning the chief subject of his preach- 
ing ; one, too, on which they themselves had been sent out 
by him to preach. We must, therefore, conclude, that up to 
the time of his arrival at Jerusalem he had authorized them to 
expect, and did himself expect, in the kingdom of God, an ap- 
proaching national deliverance. 

According to Luke, Jesus spoke a parable to correct the 
notion that his kingdom should immediately appear. This 
parable of the nobleman who went into a far country to re- 
ceive a kingdom, and to return, postpones the coming of the 
kingdom to a future uncertain date; and it is remarkable 
that from this time, the discourses alluding to the kingdom 
of heaven, instead of representing it as nigh at hand, place it 
after the siege of Jerusalem. At the passover supper Jesus 
is made to say, " I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until 
the kingdom of God shall come," Luke xxii. 18 ; and the fol- 
lowing verses imply that this would be after his death. In 
this, and in the other discourses referred to, we perceive, amidst 
the manifest interpolations of later times, an alteration in the 
tone of Jesus concerning the kingdom ; and coupling this al- 
teration with the lamentation over Jerusalem, " How often 
would I have gathered thy children together, and ye would 
not," we are led to conjecture that Jesus himself must have 
changed his views about the time of his arrival at Jerusalem, 
so far, at least, as to admit that the national deliverance, of 
which he had expected to be the instrument, was not to be 
looked for within any definite period. But although his 
opnion concerning the date of the kingdom's manifestation 






AND DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 421 



might fluctuate, his ideas concerning its nature do not hitherto 
appear to have materially changed ; for the parable, as given 
by Luke, evidently contains a larger mixture of temporal than 
of spiritual anticipations, and represents the Messiah under 
the common notion of a triumphant successor of David. It 
is said the nobleman's " citizens hated him, and sent a mes- 
sage after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign 
over us." The faithful servants are promised the rule over 
cities ; and the contumacious citizens are thus condemned, 
"But those, mine enemies, which would not that I should 
reign over them, bring them hither, and slay them before 
me."* 

John alone makes Jesus say that his kingdom is not of this 
world, xviii. 36. It has been observed that this Gospel was 
written 27 years after the fall of Jerusalem, when the original 
notion of the kingdom of God, as regenerated Israel, was al- 
most forgotten, or merged in that of a spiritual dominion over 
all mankind. Hence the different tone of John's Gospel is 
insufficient to invalidate the conclusions which we can gather 
from the three earlier ones, respecting Christ's views of his 
kingdom. Even in this Gospel, however, there are some traces 
of the earlier temporal anticipations. " Nathaniel answered, 
and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the son of God, thou art 
the king of Israel," i. 49. " And Jesus, when he had found 
a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written, Fear not, daughter 
of Zion ; behold thy king cometh, sitting on an ass's colt," 
xii. 14, 15. 

* Since Matthew's version of the parable differs considerably from Luke's, 
it is probable that both differ from what was originally said by Jesus. I 
assume Luke's to be the more correct, because the character attributed by 
him to the king agrees better with the original notion of the Messiah than 
that given by Matthew, who makes him the judge of all nations ; an idea 
which, it appears from the Acts, became prevalent after the admission of the 
Gentiles, 



422 ON THE CHARACTER, VIEWS, 

In John alone, also, it is related that on one occasion Jesus 
avoided the multitude, lest they should take him by force to 
make him a king, vi. 15. This might be true, and yet only 
prove that he did not then consider the proper time arrived 
for declaring himself openly. In the same manner he enjoined 
strict secrecy to his disciples on announcing to them his claim 
of the Messiahship, and avoided giving a direct answer to the 
question of John's disciples, " Art thou he that should come," 
the Messiah or expected deliverer, " or look we for another V 
His intention at first seems to have been to content himself 
with preparing the people for the kingdom, until the moment 
should arrive when some striking manifestation of divine aid 
should enable him to declare that the kingdom was come, 
and to ascend unopposed the throne of David. But this 
cautious reserve was thrown aside on his arrival at Jerusalem, 
when he allowed the multitude of the disciples to proclaim 
before him, " Blessed be the king that cometh in the name 
of the Lord," Luke xix. 38, and encouraged them to perse- 
vere in these evidently seditious cries in spite of the remon- 
strances of the Pharisees. This conduct, so unlike that which 
he had pursued in Galilee, might proceed from the impossi- 
bility which he found of maintaining his reserve any longer. 
He had arrived at a point when he must either renounce or 
publish his claims; and since the general tone of the dis- 
courses attributed to him about this time indicates an abated 
confidence in his expectation of immediate success, the ap- 
parent recklessness which he now displayed might proceed 
from an internal determination to encounter martyrdom 
willingly, whenever it might arrive. It is difficult, however, 
to ascertain with any degree of precision what were the views 
and expectations of Jesus at this trying juncture; and we 
should, perhaps, err in attributing to him any determinate 
yiew whatever. In looking at the past, we are apt to attri- 






AND DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 423 

bute to the actors views having a reference to subsequent 
events, the knowledge of which is fixed in our own minds, 
but which, being to them future, could have no influence 
upon them. The position in which Jesus was placed on his 
arrival at Jerusalem was one which rendered it peculiarly 
difficult to form a resolution without waiting for a further 
development of events. He knew not what a day might 
bring forth ; each succeeding hour might be the one destined 
to see the advent of the kingdom ; and the hosannas of the 
crowd might only be the harbingers of those of a legion of 
angels. Hence, there would be no absurdity in supposing 
that there was some fluctuation in the views of Jesus himself 
at this period, and that the enthusiasm of the multitude 
revived for a moment his own expectation of the approach of 
the kingdom; but that subsequent events forced him to recur 
to the anticipation of his death. 

Although it thus appears that Jesus included a national 
deliverance in his idea of the kingdom of heaven, and that 
he endeavoured to bring the whole people into a state of 
excitement, which was to be the precursor of some important 
political change, — it does not follow, of necessity, that he 
should have given indications of a plan of armed rebellion 
against the Romans. The key to his conduct seems to be 
that he relied principally on the divine intervention promised 
by the prophets. When we reflect that these were read daily 
as oracles of undoubted truth, and that many passages in 
them clearly countenanced such an idea, we need not be 
surprised that it was taken up even by some minds of a su- 
perior cast. Take, for instance, the passage of Zechariah, 
chap, xiv., which promises that, in the day of the Lord, "the 
Lord shall fight against the nations, and his feet shall stand 
upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the 
east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof 



424 ON THE CHARACTER, VIEWS, 

toward the east, and toward the west, and there shall be a 
very great valley; and half of the monntain shall remove 
toward the north, and half of it toward the south," &c* 
Things similar to this, it was supposed, had once happened. 
If the Red Sea divided, and Sinai shook, when the Lord de- 
livered his people from Egypt, a prophet like unto Moses 
might hope to see the divine arm displayed in an equally 
effective manner to rescue his servant Israel from the task- 
masters of Rome. 

Jesus, then, followed the rest of his countrymen in be- 
lieving that one part of the office of the Messiah was to 
restore the throne of Israel; but the character of prophet 
and teacher seems to have agreed better with his temper and 
habits of thought. The preliminary office of preaching re- 
pentance and preparation suited him better than the task of 
guiding the excitement into action. The poetical imagery 
and inspiring strains of the prophets, more than the desire 
of political power, awakened his enthusiasm to the quest of 
the visionary kingdom ; and he found a more congenial em- 
ployment in dilating on its sublime prospects, than in entering 
into those political intrigues and daring enterprises which 
form the gratification of ordinary revolutionists. His proto- 
types were Nathan or Isaiah, rather than Joshua or Gideon. 
His mind was of that contemplative and imaginative cast, 
which appears too fine for the eoarser turmoils of the world ; 
and he appears to us more in agreement with the general 
aspect of his character presented to us, when pouring out his 
rich stores of parable and precept on the Mount or by the 
sea-side, than when driving the buyers and sellers from the 
Temple. The assumption of the Messiahship necessarily 



* That this passage, amongst others, had been in the thoughts of Jesus* 
geems probable from Matt. xxi. 2L 



AND DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 425 

led him to the adoption of views partly political; but his 
apparent disposition to content himself with merely deli- 
vering exhortations, warnings, and precepts, so long as he 
was allowed to do so unmolested, seems to indicate that 
the character of a moral and intellectual leader was more 
natural to him ; and it might be an impression of this kind 
which contributed after his death to the disciples' ready 
abandonment of political projects, and to their adoption, in 
later times, of the doctrine that his kingdom was not of this 
world. 

III. Jesus was a reformer. He opposed the A reformer. 
dogmas of the Scribes and Pharisees, disregarded their inter- 
pretations of the law and traditions, and set the example of 
appealing freely to the mind's natural and independent dic- 
tates. He relieved benevolence and good sense from the 
pressure of established authorities, and taught that religion 
consists in the internal purity of the thoughts, and in the 
practice of morality, rather than in the performance of rites 
and ceremonies. Although these ideas were not new among 
the Jews, the state of their sects in the time of Jesus, the 
tendency to ostentatious ritualism among the Pharisees, 
and to monastic austerities among the Essenes, — gave to 
the man who could prefer to recall the purer lessons of Micah 
and Isaiah, and to urge the claims of mercy rather than of 
sacrifice, a title to be considered both as an independent 
thinker and a reformer. 

But the full extent of the reform which the Christian sect 
introduced into Judaism does not appear to have been at- 
tempted, — it is doubtful if it was contemplated even, by 
Jesus himself. He observed the ritual law of Moses, fre- 
quently gave his sanction to it, and we cannot discover that 
he ever authorized its disuse. After his death, his followers 
appear for a considerable time to have had no idea of for- 



426 ON THE CHARACTER, VIEWS, 

saking the Mosaic institutes; insomuch that the first proposal 
to dispense with them nearly created a schism, and appeared 
to the heads of the church a case so novel, that it required a 
special council to decide upon it. 

This view of the conduct of Jesus, with respect to the laws 
of Moses, agrees with the silence of Josephus concerning 
him, when lamenting the disuse of the ancient Jewish rites. 
Antiq. xviii. chap. 1. If he had considered Jesus as the 
prime mover in this bold innovation, he could hardly have 
avoided alluding to him in this place, especially as the disuse 
of the law among the greater part of the Christian sect, 
when Josephus wrote, pointed Jesus out to his particular 
notice. But he accuses Judas the Galilean of having caused 
the change in the customs of their fathers by introducing a 
new system of philosophy, and thus tacitly exonerates Jesus. 
This innovation of his predecessor and countryman Judas 
renders the conservatism of Jesus, in respect to the law of 
Moses, the more remarkable. 

Hence the merit of Jesus, as a reformer, consists rather 
in the general liberal and enlightened tone of his teaching, 
which contributed to prepare the way for the changes intro- 
duced afterwards into Judaism chiefly by Paul, than in any 
decided reformation proposed by himself. From his conduct, 
it appears even very improbable that he himself would have 
been prepared to go so far in the path of reformation or 
destruction as the apostle of the Gentiles, and to admit that 
the law was superseded by faith, and that in Christ there was 
neither circumcision nor un circumcision.* 

* Luke xvi. 17: "And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than 
one tittle of the law to fail." This appears to have been a Rabbinical 
saying. Sohar Genes : " Although all men in the world should be gathered 
together to abolish Jod, which is the least letter in the law, they will not 
succeed." In Matthew v. 18, we find the addition, "till all be fulfilled." 
But this addition, and the preceding verse, have the appearance of ana- 



AND DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 427 

We are led by this to another interesting but difficult 
inquiry, viz. how far Jesus himself contemplated the admis- 
sion of the Gentiles into his kingdom. 

Many of the speeches attributed to Jesus in the four 
Gospels evidently allude to, or imply a knowledge of, this 
enlargement of his church. Matt. viii. 11, 12: "And I say 
unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and 
shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the 
kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall 
be cast into outer darkness." — xxi. 43 : " Therefore I say 
unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you 
(from the parable of the husbandmen, evidently the Jews), 
and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." — 
xxiv. 31 : " And he shall send his angels with a great sound 
of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from 
the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."— 
xxv. 32 : " And before him shall be gathered all nations." — ■ 
xxvi. 13 : " Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel 
shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, 
that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her." 
— xxviii. 19 : " Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations." 
Luke ii. 10 : " And the angel said unto them, Fear not : for 
behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be 
to all people." — 32 : " A light to lighten the Gentiles, and 
the glory of thy people Israel." 

Yet we find some speeches of Jesus of a very different 
character, indicating that he considered his mission to be to 
the Jews only. Matt. x. 5, 6 : " Go not into the way of the 



chronisiii, from their meeting an objection which does not seem likely to 
have existed during the life of Jesus. No one then accused him of de- 
stroying the law and the prophets. But from the time of the Gentile 
controversy the Jews often made this a ground of accusation against his 
sect. 



428 ON THE CHARACTER, VIEWS, 

Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not. 
But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." — 
xv. 24 : "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house 
of Israel." Luke makes the angel say to Mary, i. 32, 33, 
"He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the 
Highest ; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne 
of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of 
Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end." 
Mary says, ver. 54, 55, " He hath holpen his servant Israel, 
in remembrance of his mercy, as he spake to our fathers." 
The claim of Zaccheus to salvation is made by Jesus to 
depend upon his being considered a son of Abraham. Luke 
xix. 9. 

Now of these two classes of sayings, which has the better 
claim to be considered as faithfully representing the views of 
Jesus himself? The latter; because they represent opinions 
which were grown out of date at the time when the books 
were written, and therefore the writers could have no motive 
for inserting them, unless they were well-known relics of 
some of the discourses of Jesus. Such a speech as, " I am 
not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," was 
totally at variance with the state and prospects of the church 
at the time of the fall of Jerusalem, when, as the writer 
himself intimates, the kingdom of Christ was passing away 
to the Gentiles ; but it agrees with the actual facts in the 
life of Jesus, who was a Jew, spent his life amongst his own 
nation, and had, as far as we can learn, very little intercourse 
with or knowledge of the rest of the world. Whereas the 
sayings of the contrary description, concerning the extension 
of the kingdom, represent exactly what may be supposed to 
have been the opinions prevalent at the date of the writing, 
when Christianity had been diffused widely through the 
Roman empire, and the Jewish church had become insigni- 



AND DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 429 

ficant in comparison with its numerous younger sisters of the 
Gentiles; but they cannot be attributed to Christ himself 
otherwise than as prophecies. 

Another and perhaps stronger argument to show that 
Christ took the more limited view of his kingdom, is found 
in the conduct of his followers. They continued till after 
the death of Stephen to preach the word to Jews only, Acts 
xi. 19 ; and appear to have been brought into contact with 
the Gentiles in consequence of the gradual extension of their 
society, the persecution concerning Stephen, and other inci- 
dental circumstances, rather than in pursuance of a system 
of universal missions, which the supposed words of Jesus, 
Matt, xxviii. 19, Acts i. 8, seem to enjoin. The first Gentile 
conversions created all the surprise which one would expect 
from an unforeseen turn of things. Acts x. 45 : " And they 
of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many 
as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was 
poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost." — xi. 18: "When 
they (the church at Jerusalem) heard these things, they held 
their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to 
the Gentiles granted repentance unto life." It was made a 
matter of accusation against Peter that he went in unto men 
uncircumcised, and did eat with them ; and he justifies him- 
self, not by referring to any of the many supposed sayings of 
Jesus before us concerning the universality of his kingdom, 
and the admission of other sheep into his fold, but by relating 
a recent vision sent to him with the special object to autho- 
rize this new direction of proselytism. In the council con- 
cerning the necessity of keeping the law, no reference is 
made to the authority of Jesus himself, although any sayings 
of his authorizing the admission of the Gentiles would have 
supplied most pertinent arguments. If he had really said 
that many should come from the east and the west, to sit 



430 ON THE CHARACTER, VIEWS, 

down in the kingdom of God, and that his gospel should be 
preached in the whole world, with what infinitely greater 
effect might James have qnoted such sayings of the Messiah 
himself, than an obscure prophecy of Amos about building 
again the tabernacle of David ! Since Luke has given a brief 
sketch of several of the speeches at this council, it is probable 
that he has noticed all the principal arguments used ; and 
the absence of any allusion to the authority of the founder of 
the sect must appear remarkable. 

A great part of Paul's speeches and writings is occupied 
with the Gentile controversy ; yet here is the same apparent 
unconsciousness of any sayings of Christ himself bearing 
upon the subject. He quotes copiously from the prophets to 
prove that there is no difference between the Jew and the 
Greek : — since his Jewish readers believed also in Jesus, why 
omit all reference to his prediction, that many from the east 
and west should sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or 
others equally to the point ? It is to be observed, also, that 
Luke represents Paul's mission to the Gentiles, not as under- 
taken in conformity with the teaching of Jesus during his 
natural life, but as the object of a special revelation to Paul 
himself. Acts xxvi. 16, 17. 

Thus arises a strong probability that Jesus himself had not 
arrived fully at those enlarged notions of the universality of 
his kingdom, without distinction of Jew or Gentile, which 
appear so frequently in the four Gospels. Yet the mere title, 
" King of the Jews/' could not express the whole of his ideas 
concerning the kingdom of God. They were such, probably, 
as a patriotic Jew might have formed from the prophets. 
The Son of Man, or Messiah, was to restore the throne of 
David, and to reign at Jerusalem ; all nations were to recog- 
nize the supremacy of the people of God, and to be converted 
to righteousness by the laws proceeding from Zion. Isaiah 



AND DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 431 

xlii. 1 — 4 : " Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect 
in whom my soul delighteth ; I have put my spirit upon him : 

he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles He 

shall not fail, nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment 
in the earth : and the isles shall wait for his law." 21 : " The 
Lord will magnify the law, and make it honourable." lx. 3 : 
" The Gentiles shall come to thy (Zion's) light, and kings 
to the brightness of thy rising." Jer. iii. 17 : " At that time 
they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord, and all the 
nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, 
to Jerusalem : neither shall they walk any more after the 
imagination of their evil heart." Thus, in the views of 
Jesus, there was probably a large mixture of what was merely 
local and national, which disappeared in later times. The 
decay of the Jewish state, and the spread of the Gospel 
through many lands, led men to dwell upon and enlarge 
those parts of the Messiah's character and offices which were 
of universal interest. Jerusalem destroyed, made way for a 
new Jerusalem, the metropolis of all the faithful, to descend 
from heaven ; the Messiah, instead of reigning in an earthly 
city, was to appear seated on the clouds of heaven ; the 
tribes of the earth, instead of coming to bend before mount 
Zion, were to look for the revelation of the Son of Man from 
on high ; and the king of Israel was forgotten in the Judge 
of mankind. 

IV. Jesus was a moral and religious teacher. A moral and 

religious 

This was part of the office of prophet, which he teacher. 
assumed ; and was essential to his main purpose of preaching 
the kingdom of God. The peculiar Jewish notion that na- 
tional righteousness must introduce the kingdom permitted 
the unusual combination, that one who suffered death as a 
revolutionist should be regarded as pre-eminently a moral 
teacher. 



432 

It is not unfrequently allowed that, in the present age, 
the moral teaching of Jesns forms the strength of Christ- 
ianity. The advocates of its divine origin, from a conviction 
of the sufficiency of historical evidence, are probably few in 
comparison with those who feel impressed with the divine 
authority of Jesus, by the weight, the beauty, and the ap- 
parent originality of his discourses and parables.* In the 
teacher presented to us in the four Gospels, an inexhaustible 
invention, sententiousness combined with copiousness, affa- 
bility with dignity, and the whole elevated by the continual 
reference to a great object — the preparation for the kingdom 
of God — all this seems to justify the description, " never man 
spake like this man." Yet considering the sublime character 
which mere human genius sometimes assumes when in- 
fluenced by the higher feelings, it appears unnecessary to 
have recourse to the hypothesis of an extraordinary divine 
inspiration to account for any of the discourses or doctrines 
of Jesus, The belief in his own appointment as a prophet 
and Messiah to his nation would give an air of elevation to 
the manner in which his precepts were delivered, of the same 
kind as the actual appointment might be expected to give ; 
and the precepts themselves can hardly be considered as 
more than what a favourably endowed mind might have 
drawn from its own resources, and from such materials as 
we know to have been within the reach of Jesus. 

The greater part of the precepts in the four Gospels are 
to be found in different parts of the Old Testament, in the 
book of Ecclesiasticus, and in the ancient Rabbinical writ- 
ings.t Although it cannot be proved that Jesus borrowed 



* These remarks apply chiefly to the first three Gospels. Reasons have 
been given for considering the last as representing less faithfully the real 
character of the teaching of Jesus. 

f See next chapter. 



AND DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 433 

directly from all these sources, it thus appears that the pre- 
cepts referred to might have been familiar to many of the 
Jews in his time. The singular fortunes of this nation had 
given rise to some striking peculiarities in its modes of think- 
ing on moral and religious subjects ; and it may perhaps be 
shown, that much of that which distinguishes Christianity 
from other systems flowed from a state of thought neither 
uncommon nor unnatural in the nation from the bosom of 
which the new religion sprung. 

The science of morals having for its basis the constitution 
of human nature, teachers of it in different ages must neces- 
sarily have much agreement with each other. The distinctive 
character of each moralist is chiefly discernible in the selection 
of the duties on which he lays the greatest stress, and the 
grounds on which he rests moral obligation. In this view, 
the peculiarities which cause the doctrines of Jesus to stand 
apart from other systems appear to be principally the four 
following : — 

Firstly. The devotional spirit. This is the most striking 
feature in Christianity. There is a continual reference to the 
Supreme Being. The will of God is made the basis of all 
duty. Men are to imitate their father in heaven. Jesus 
himself retires frequently into the desert to pray, and declares 
that his meat is to do the will of him that sent him, and to 
finish his work. 

This spirit was a prominent characteristic of the Jewish 
nation. Their form of government, and the vicissitudes to 
which the nation had been exposed, combining, perhaps, 
with an inherent disposition, had caused the religious feel- 
ing, which is common in different degrees to all mankind, to 
be manifested among the Jews with a depth and constancy 
which rendered it their most striking national feature. The 
belief in one supreme invisible God, held by their remote 

2 F 



434 ON THE CHARACTER, VIEWS', 

forefathers, had been incorporated by Moses into their sys- 
tem of national law. * This belief, although not unknown to 
many nations, was by the Jews alone consolidated into an 
established religion. The conflicts which it had undergone 
with polytheism in the time of the kings of Israel and 
Judah, and more lately during the ascendancy of the Mace- 
donian kings of Syria, had ended in its triumph. The laws 
of Moses,, which at intervals had fallen into disuse from the 
introduction of foreign ideas and usages, were revived suc- 
cessively by Ezra and Judas Maccabseus. In consequence of 
the reformation effected by the latter, Judaism was not only 
firmly established in its native land, but began to make pro- 
gress among the Greeks; and the inferiority of Jewish 
political strength was in some degree compensated by the 
increasing conquests of the Jewish religion. To pure mono- 
theism the prophets added, that their nation was the chosen 
people of God, his servant appointed to make him known 
among the nations; and consequently, that the Ruler of the 
universe was constantly watching over the affairs of Israel, 
arranging events for his special benefit, and guiding him as 
a favourite child. The Jew who neglected the Deity felt 
himself guilty not only of impiety, but of treason and in- 
gratitude towards the King and Father of his nation. Mono- 
theism in Judea had therefore, in addition to its own inherent 
strength of sublimity and rationality, the support of patriotism 
and national feeling. 

Hence the remarkable prevalence of the religious tone 
observable in all the ancient Jewish books. The historian 
passes over secondary causes, and relates events as of the 

*In" Bauer's Theology of the Ancient Hebrews," it is held to be probable 
that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was no more than a family- 
God, who by Moses was raised into a national-God ; and that the purer 
monotheistic ideas interwoven in the Pentateuch proceed from a later 
age, that of David or later. English Translation, p. 2 — 42. 






AND DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 435 

Lord's doing ; lie omits all reference to human motives, and 
tells us that his personages act as the Lord had put it into 
their hearts. The poet's compositions are chiefly hymns of 
praise. Public teachers proclaim that they come from the 
Divine presence, and speak as the Lord said unto them. 
And the nation entitles the expected restoration of Israel, 
The Kingdom of God. 

The superintendence of the Deity, which was coldly or 
occasionally recognized in other nations as a speculative 
truth, was thus among the Jews a theme of constant and 
impassioned feeling. As such it appears also in the Gospel. 
But Jesus does not merely echo the prophets, and present to 
us incessantly the Lord of Hosts, and the God of Jacob ; he 
renders more prominent the paternal character of the Deity, 
and exhibits it in a form more calculated to attract and in- 
terest all men. He appears to direct his followers, by their 
title as human beings, rather than as members of the chosen 
nation, to approach the Father in heaven. Each individual 
in any nation might consequently appropriate to himself a 
share in the paternal regards of the Deity, and the close 
relationship, which had hitherto subsisted between Israel and 
his God, was by Christianity thrown open to all mankind. 

Secondly. The doctrine of a future state. This doctrine 
had gradually gained ground among the Jews from the date 
of the captivity, and in the time of Jesus was held by the 
whole nation excepting the Sadducees. Jesus, therefore, 
does not lay down this doctrine as peculiar to himself. 
Although it had naturally a large share in his last discourses 
to his followers, he appears to introduce it only as the occa- 
sion requires, and as a doctrine well known to those whom 
he addressed. It certainly does not appear to be preached 
by Jesus in that urgent and pointed manner which we should 
expect from one who considered that the chief end of his 

2 f2 



436 ON THE CHARACTER, VIEWS, 

mission was to bring immortality to light. Whence, then, 
has this doctrine come to be regarded as eminently distinc- 
tive of Christianity ? 

Jesus considered his principal object to be the preaching of 
the kingdom of God, which, it has been seen, was generally 
supposed to signify the restoration and enlargement of the 
throne of Israel. The expectation of this kingdom continued 
in the church after his death ; but its fulfilment in the sense 
originally contemplated being continually postponed, and 
becoming daily more improbable, it was gradually replaced 
by the more generally understood doctrine of a future judg- 
ment. The transition was not unnatural, since the idea of 
the Messiah, as an universal and righteous king, might easily 
be modified into that of Judge of mankind. After the fall 
of Jerusalem, when it was seen that still the kingdom of God 
was not nigh, that the Son of Man did not appear on the 
clouds of heaven, and that the generation which had beheld 
him was passing away, and yet these things were not ful- 
filled ; — the later interpretation of the promises of Jesus was 
confirmed, the throne of Israel was forgotten, and the kingdom 
understood only of the house eternal in the heavens. 

The latter was the sense usually given to the kingdom 
by Paul the preacher to the Gentiles. The first three 
Gospels, written near the time of the fall of Jerusalem, 
appear to preserve the original Jewish notion mixed with 
later interpretations ; but in the last Gospel few traces of 
the Messiah's earthly kingdom are to be found, and the 
promises of Jesus are made to refer clearly to the state of 
the righteous in heaven. 

Thus, by means of the undertaking of Jesus, a deep- 
rooted national superstition was made to lend its force to the 
spread of the doctrine of a future state. The vigorous im- 
pulse contributed to launch this doctrine amongst the nations 



AND DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 437 

to whom Christianity reached, where its own power, com- 
bined with other causes, maintained it in health and increase 
after this temporary support had died away. 

Thirdly. The enforcement of the virtues of humility and 
resignation. Precepts of this kind, " Blessed are the poor 
in spirit, for they shall see God," — " Blessed are they which 
are persecuted for righteousness' sake," — " Come unto me, 
for I am meek and lowly in heart," — " But I say unto you 
that ye resist not evil ; but whosoever shall smite thee on the 
right cheek, turn to him the other also ?' — these are uncom- 
mon, and form a conspicuous feature in Christianity. The 
spirit which they inculcate has seldom been dwelt upon as a 
subject of commendation in other schools. The stoic pre- 
tended that pain and pleasure were alike indifferent to the 
wise man; Jesus acknowledges pain and insult to be evil, 
but teaches that they are to be encountered willingly for 
righteousness' sake. The stoic martyr was supported by 
pride; Jesus commends lowliness of heart. Whilst it is 
generally allowed that, amidst the clashing of human in- 
terests, a certain degree of uncomplaining endurance and of 
cheerful acquiescence under wrong, on the part of indivi- 
duals, is eminently conducive to the good of society, — such a 
temper, in its actual manifestation, is so frequently ridiculed 
and despised, that the fine moral perception of a teacher, 
who could single it out for especial praise, has been justly 
made a matter of admiration. The more conspicuous virtues 
of courage, generosity, and the like, have found numberless 
panegyrists ; but Jesus chiefly has unveiled the virtues which 
dignify adversity, and taught men to admire suffering worth. 

Yet here also it is impossible to ascribe originality to 
Jesus. The lowly spirit, which he commends, is also en- 
joined in terms of nearly equal force in the Old Testament 
and in the Rabbinical writings. These commendations are 



488 ON THE CHARACTER, VIEWS, 

indeed so frequent, that the temper in question may be re- 
garded as another peculiar feature in the Jewish character. 
Its prevalence may be accounted for by the joint influence of 
their religious creed, and the circumstances of the nation 
from the time of the Assyrian invasions. 

The supposed perpetual superintendence of the Supreme 
Being, which was so constantly impressed on the mind of the 
Jew, must necessarily dispose it to humility and resignation. 
The habitual contemplation of the Divine perfections, in con- 
trast with the worshippers own nature, must naturally produce 
the language, and frequently the spirit, of self-abasement. 

But another important cause of the prevalence of this 
tone among the Jews might be found, probably, in the 
precarious and usually oppressed state of their nation during 
eight centuries. The reign of Josiah beheld the departing 
reflection of the glories of David and Solomon; and Jacob, 
successively the slave of the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and 
Romans, obtained too short intervals of independent national 
existence ever to recover fully the bold and martial spirit of 
the conquerors of Canaan, or of the mighty men of David. 
The Jew who wept by the waters of Babylon could no longer 
repeat the songs of Miriam and Deborah ; and the continual 
sight of the holy city in ruins, or in diminished glory, rendered 
the tone of Jeremiah for many centuries the more appropriate 
expression of the nation's feelings. Checked in his first at- 
tempts after increase and fame, the despised Israel learned 
to cultivate and appreciate the virtues of an humble spirit. 

It is curious to observe that the human race appeal's 
sometimes to learn on a large scale, by the same kind of 
lessons as those which carry on the education of individuals. 
By means of Jesus, the spirit which had resulted from his 
nation's misfortunes has been recommended to the world at 
large; and thus, in the same way as adversity completes 



AND DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 439 

individual character, will the afflictions of the Jewish nation 
have contributed to the moral perfection of mankind. 

Fourthly, Another peculiarity of the doctrine of Jesus 
is its unlimited benevolence. " By this shall men know 
that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another." " Ye have 
heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, 
and hate thine enemy ; but I say unto you, Love your ene- 
mies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate 
you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and per- 
secute you: that ye may be the children of your Father 
which is in heaven, for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil 
and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the 
unjust." 

This is not equalled in the Old Testament. The Law 
contains many beautiful precepts concerning forgiveness : 
the Israelite is forbidden to bear any grudge against the 
children of his people, and is commanded to help his enemy's 
ass lying under its burthen; but Moses spoke as the ju- 
dicious magistrate, intent on promoting concord among the 
people immediately under his care, rather than as an uni- 
versal philanthropist. The book of Proverbs forbids us to 
rejoice when an enemy falleth, lest the Lord turn away his 
wrath from him. In the Psalms and Prophets, forgiveness 
is far from being the prevalent tone with respect to enemies ; 
imprecations are mingled with prayers, and the day of the 
Lord's vengeance is looked forward to with exultation. It 
seems necessary, therefore, to seek for the cause of the su- 
perior tone of the Christian benevolence in the individual 
character of Jesus. He enjoins love to all mankind. His 
commands betoken the generous spirit which does good from 
its own impulse, and, with a noble carelessness, takes no 
record of injuries, because resentment and malice are beneath 
its nature. 



440 ON THE CHARACTER, VIEWS, 

The motives recognized by Jesus appear to be twofold ; — 
the desire of attaining the highest moral perfection, and the 
hope of securing the favour of the Deity. " Be ye perfect, 
as your Father in heaven is perfect :" and " Your reward 
shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest." 
That this reward was to consist only in the pleasures spring- 
ing from the exercise of the virtuous affections, few of the 
Jews would have been prepared to admit. Temporal pro- 
sperity had been promised in the law; the Pharisees and 
Essenes looked for undefined enjoyments in a future life; 
and this latter expectation was clearly held out by Jesus as 
the chief incentive to virtue. " Lay up for yourselves trea- 
sures in heaven." 

Upon the whole, the moral teaching of Jesus was such a 
combination as might be expected from a vigorous mind> 
fully conversant with the notions of his age and country, but 
yet able to modify or add to them from its own resources. 
He borrowed largely, but with the air of one who condescends 
to use some materials which he finds already prepared, rather 
than as one mistrusting his own power. Such precepts as 
these, " The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the 
sabbath ;" " On these two commandments (love to God and 
love to man) hang all the law and the prophets •" " Do unto 
others as ye would that they should do unto you, for this is 
the law and the prophets;" " These (moral duties) ought ye 
to have done, and not to leave the others (ritual observ- 
ances) undone;" the parable of the good Samaritan, in 
answer to the question, Who is my neighbour ? — precepts 
like these show that the mind of Jesus was of that kind 
which finds a more appropriate office in laying down great 
principles, than in merely expounding them. He set aside 
even the authority of Moses, when the doctrine of the law- 
giver appeared to interfere with his own. " Moses said this 



AND DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 441 

on account of the hardness of your hearts, but from the 
beginning it was not so." He spake as one having authority, 
and not as the Scribes. The forms of logical disputation 
were beneath the attention of one claiming a mission from 
heaven ; hence there is very little appearance of reasoning in 
his discourses, and in Jesus we seem to listen to an oracle, 
and not to a philosopher. 

V. The four Gospels present Jesus to us chiefly Personal 

character, 
as the Messiah. What he said and did in the 

short interval during which he bore this character was alone 
likely to be preserved through the traditions of nearly half a 
century. The writers probably knew, or could learn, but 
little of his history before the commencement of his preach- 
ing, that is, for the greater part of his life. The predominant 
interest belonging to his public career absorbed the attention 
of his cotemporaries ; and so little pains had they taken to 
obtain or record information concerning his earlier history, 
that, after the lapse of about forty years from his death, an 
industrious compiler, apparently intent upon collecting all 
relating to Jesus that he thought worthy of belief, and so 
well disposed to carry back his biography to an early date, 
that he begins with the birth of John the Baptist, was only 
able to record a few traditions evidently containing much 
fable* concerning his birth and infancy, and could find 
nothing to relieve the blank of about eighteen years from 
the time when the child Jesus disputed in the temple to the 



* Zacharias is struck dumb for doubting the words of the angel Gabriel. 
This angel gives directions that the children shall be called, the one John, 
and the other Jesus, both of which were amongst the most common Jewish 
names. The speeches are little else than predictions of the future glory of 
the child Jesus. Anna speaks of him to all them that look for redemption 
in Jerusalem. It is revealed to Simeon that Jesus is the Lord's Christ. 
Yet no recollection of all this appears thirty years afterwards amongst his 
own family, who did not believe in him. 



442 ON THE CHARACTER, VIEWS, 

appearance of the Baptist. What was beyond the reach of 
Luke must remain inaccessible to later investigation; and 
we should seek in vain to satisfy our curiosity concerning the 
pursuits and demeanour of Jesus as the private citizen of 
Nazareth.* 

This very poverty of information on the part of so many 
as four writers, does, however, seem to authorize the con- 
jecture that there was nothing remarkable to be told. Jesus 
probably attracted but little attention from his fellow-citizens 
previously to his public preaching. The contemplation of 
objects above the common pursuits of life frequently produces 
an indifference towards and inaptitude for them, which in 
the eyes of most observers, and in many cases justly, place 
the recluse below rather than above the level of his fellow- 
men. The active but petty engagements which would confer 
weight in a provincial town, were probably little sought after 
by one who was meditating on the prophets; and the re- 
spectable Nazarenes who filled the important offices of priest, 
ruler of the synagogue, or tax-gatherer, might have smiled 
with contempt if told that their names would be eclipsed by 
that of the low-born, obscure, and apparently useless citizen, 
who, disregarding civil eminence, was engaged in the con- 
templation of the kingdom of God. 

The few allusions which are found to the earlier life of 
Jesus do not indicate that he had been considered as a 
person of influence or weight in his own town. His towns- 
men distinguish him merely by his profession and the name 

* It is said in the Talmud that Jesus had been in Egypt when a young 
man in company with Rabbi Joshua ben Perachiah, with whom having 
disagreed, he gave himself up to magical practices. — Bab. Sanhed., fol. 
107, 2. 

The continual resort of the Jews to Alexandria, and the opening part of 
Matthew's Gospel, seem to entitle this story to some credit, as far as relates 
to the journey of Jesus into Egypt at some period of his life. 



AND DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 443 

of his family. Mark vi. 1, 4 : " He came to his own country, 
and his disciples follow him : and when the sabbath day was 
come, he began to teach in the synagogue ; and many hear- 
ing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this 
man these things ; and what wisdom is this which is given 
unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his 
hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the 
brother of James and Joses, and of Juda and Simon ? and 
are not his sisters here with us ? And they were offended at 
him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without 
honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and 
in his own house." See also Luke iv. 24; John vi. 42; 
Matt. xiii. 54. 

His own family seem at first not only to have disbelieved the 
reality of his miracles, but to have looked upon his proceed- 
ings as rash and senseless. Mark iii. 21, 22 : " And when 
his friends heard of it (the assemblage of the multitude), they 
went out to lay hold on him, for they said, He is beside 
himself. And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem 
said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils 
casteth he out devils." John also relates a conversation in 
which the brethren of Jesus speak of his undertaking in a 
depreciating manner, vii. 3, 5. 

Thus it would appear that there had been nothing in the 
conduct of Jesus to prepare common observers for his noto- 
riety, and that those who were most intimate with him, 
regarded his undertaking with surprise and impatience. 
How, then, did he acquire the command of that deep 
reverence and that implicit obedience which seem to have 
been yielded to him by his disciples ? — By the dazzling 
nature of his pretensions, the force of character with which 
he supported them, and his attractive social qualities. 

The claim of a divine mission, and the pretension to mi- 



444 ON THE CHARACTER, VIEWS, 

raculous powers, generally call forth either contempt or ad- 
miration. The idea of command over invisible influences is 
so calculated both to delight and to overawe, that, if the 
claimant be able to maintain his hazardous pretensions with 
any apparent success, or merely to bring the minds of be- 
holders into secret doubt, his influence becomes of the most 
despotic kind. The enthusiasm of Jesus was not of that 
blind sort which precludes all regard to common probabilities. 
His belief in miracles was not the chimera of a disordered 
imagination, but was founded on ideas common to his age 
and country ; it permitted, therefore, the exercise of intel- 
lectual vigour and acuteness in the situations into which such 
a belief led him. He possessed in a remarkable degree both 
the boldness and the tact which are necessary to every leader 
of a multitude, and especially to one who sustains the cha- 
racter of a miracle-worker. His answers to the applicants 
are generally such as would not compromise his reputation, 
whatever were the result : — " According to thy faith be it 
unto thee;" " Go thy way, thy faith has saved thee," &c. 
When the disciples whom he had authorized to cast out de- 
mons asked him why they could not cure a certain lunatic, 
his ready answer was, "Because of your unbelief," and 
" Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fast- 
ing." When pressed by his opponents to produce a sign 
from heaven, he referred to " the sign of the times," and, by 
a prompt and sharp reproof, made his questioners appear the 
baffled party. When his disciples begged permission to call 
down fire from heaven to destroy the uncourteous village, he 
answered, " Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of; 
for the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to 
save them. And they went to another village." On another 
occasion, when called upon for a miracle, he promised at once 
to build the Temple in three days, requiring first that it 



AND DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 445 

should be destroyed. His retort concerning the authority of 
John, and his reply concerning the tribute money, show the 
same mixture of intrepidity and tact, which could always 
silence, although it might be dangerous or impossible to 
answer, an opponent. 

The . degree of management or shrewdness here supposed 
does not imply that Jesus was a wilful deceiver, or insincere 
in his main purpose and pretensions. From his apparent 
success in the cases of demons and others, he might believe 
that he really possessed a miraculous power; but he was 
obliged to perceive that it was not invariable or universal. 
In his own mind he might conclude that miracles of different 
magnitudes required different modes of preparation, or a 
different degree of faith ; or he might be unable to explain 
the matter at all to his own satisfaction. But in the mean- 
time, he would naturally wish to avoid a display of failure 
before his followers and the multitude, and, in the midst of 
incidental embarrassing conjunctures, would avail himself of 
his promptness of thought to find suitable evasions.* 

But the assertion of a divine commission, and the skilful 
maintenance of miraculous pretensions, did not constitute 
the only hold of Jesus upon the allegiance of his followers. 
This was secured by the interest which he was able to excite 
as a man and a friend. The Messiah was equally revered as 
a leader, and loved as a companion. His tales, discourses, 
and ingenious adaptations of passing incidents, imparted 
higher charms to a life of adventure, and were more powerful 
than the direct command to follow him. He possessed in a 

* I cannot find, in any of the miracles, reason to suspect that Jesus was 
concerned in a fraudulent scheme or contrivance. This low kind of art 
would render his character inexplicable ; and the supposition of it is unne- 
cessary, since it has been shown that those miracles which cannot be resolved 
into natural events probably owe their miraculous part to the exaggeration 
or invention of the narrators. 



446 ON THE CHARACTER VIEWS, 

high degree that facility or accessibleness which inspires con- 
fidence,, whilst it does not diminish respect. The disciples as 
well as the Pharisees invited him without fear to their feasts. 
The copiousness and weight of his conversation, and the in- 
terest which his presence alone must inspire by raising the 
minds of his associates to the contemplation of the elevated 
objects with which his name was connected, may explain the 
feeling of those who said, (c Lord, we will follow thee whither- 
soever thou goest." The promptness of his rebukes even 
probably strengthened rather than weakened the attachment 
of his hearers, since they were delivered with that frankness 
of speech which allows men to feel less hurt by the severity 
of the reproof, than interested by the point with which it is 
delivered, and conciliated by the evident absence of malignant 
intention. 

The modern admirers of Jesus, who can enter but slightly 
into Jewish interests in the time of Tiberius, might doubtless 
prefer to regard him in his character of moral instructor 
alone, and to separate the teacher on the Mount from the 
leader of ignorant Galilean multitudes, assuming David's 
titles and clearing the temple to the shouts of the populace. 
But it has been seen that a lofty and poetical enthusiasm, a 
religious patriotism promoted by the national literature, more 
than the ordinary motives of the demagogue, probably im- 
pelled Jesus into those parts of his career which most em- 
barrass his panegyrists. His enterprize in the main was one 
which must excite sympathy; — to prepare men for freedom 
and regeneration by means of general reformation : and if he 
mingled with it secret hopes of a speedy expulsion of foreign 
tyrants, the lovers of mankind will lament his insufficient 
means rather than condemn the wish. 

It might be an extreme, however, to assert that Jesus was 
entirely devoid of those powerful ordinary stimulants, ambi- 



AND DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 447 

tion and the love of distinction and sway. Religions humility 
is not equivalent to practical lowliness of spirit. The proudest 
kings and priests have used language equally submissive to- 
wards God, and haughty towards man ; and David's son, if 
he had reached David's throne, might have been, like his 
supposed progenitor, no less exacting of homage to himself 
than punctilious in rendering it to the King of heaven. The 
question, " Whom do men say that I the Son of Man am V 
was intended not only to gain information, but to elicit the 
confession on which the meek and lowly prophet bestowed 
such emphatic commendation, " Thou art the Christ, the Son 
of the living God." He waived his own title to be called 
Good, and the right of bestowing seats in his kingdom; but 
it was in favour of God himself. He denounced by a parable 
heavy judgments on those who would not have him to reign 
over them ; and it appears probable that the constant oppo- 
sition of the Pharisees added vehemence to the reproofs 
which their hypocrisy merited.* Whilst recommending hu- 
mility to his followers, he never ceased himself to exercise 
most absolute sway over them. The authority which mental 
ascendancy justly procures, he was inclined in the fullest 
degree to maintain : " Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye 
say well, for so I am." " But be not ye called Rabbi, for one 
is your Master even Christ, and all ye are brethren." Matt, 
xxiii. 8. He retires before superior physical force ; but in no 
instance does he succumb in pretensions or bearing to te- 
trarch, priest, scribe, or pharisee. Indignation and anger 
are frequently displayed by him when his mission is opposed. 
Adversaries of the kingdom are unsparingly condemned to 
the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of 



* Matthew places the woes on the Pharisees shortly after they had suc- 
ceeded in repressing the enthusiasm of the populace at Jerusalem. 



448 ON THE CHARACTER; VIEWS; 

teeth. The ready recurrence to " the worm that dieth not, 
and the fire that is not quenched," betokens the traces which 
a Jewish education, — the habit of dividing men into the 
Lord's people and the Lord's enemies, — might easily leave 
even on a mind possessing naturally much pure benevolence. 
" Go ye and tell that fox," breathes rather a spirited defiance 
than the passionless resignation with which Aristides sub- 
mitted to exile. "The Son of Man is Lord even of the 
Sabbath," and "a greater than Solomon is here," show a 
determination to assert the full dignity of the Messiah at the 
risk of shocking even the religious prejudices of his hearers. 
It is singular that even two tales bearing strongly the le- 
gendary character, record somewhat harsh assertions of his 
prophetic dignity to his parents. Adversity brings out the 
more amiable features of the character : as Jesus met with 
disappointment and suffering, the more pleasing charac- 
teristics which he so largely possessed, sympathy with men's 
wants, consideration for their weaknesses, patience and forti- 
tude amidst distresses, now form the traits by which he is 
most easily recognized. Yet after making all allowance for 
the tone of command and indignation which his assumed office 
and the conscious dignity of his character must frequently 
warrant, we seem to meet with indications that the Son 
of Man was formed like his brethren in this point also, that 
he might have felt some of the usual influence of power and 
success. The qualities which form a poet or a prophet are not 
those which make a firm and judicious temporal ruler; Jesus 
in suffering, and Jesus in triumph, might have given different 
lessons to mankind : and if our chief interest be to preserve 
an attractive moral picture, we may perhaps feel inclined 
to rejoice that the tempter was never really permitted to 
expose Jesus to this most severe ordeal; that an untimely 
fate, in the world's sense, preserved him from being lost in a 



AND DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 449 

common crowd of kings and conquerors ; and that his king- 
dom remained that imaginary one, in which he was to be 
revealed on the clouds of heaven, or, as his followers learned 
afterwards to express the dominion of his life and lessons, a 
kingdom not of this world.* 

Whether the hard circumstances in which he was placed 
contributed or not to preserve the purity of his character, it is in- 
disputable that the pleasing features do strongly predominate. 
Upon the whole, we see in Jesus the singular example of a 
great and noble mind influenced by a kind of notions, which, 
when acting upon more ordinary men, produce mere visionaries 
or fanatics. The belief in divine missions, and the expecta- 
tion of approaching miraculous revolutions, are not un- 
common ; but in most states of society they are found in con- 
junction with ignorance and a low degree of moral and intel- 
lectual power. A peculiar creed, literature, and national po- 
sition, permitted these notions to be seized upon by a highly 
endowed mind ; and that which, in connexion with coarseness 
and violence, would have produced a savage and warlike fana- 
tic, falling in with intellect, benevolence, and natural refine- 
ment, produced a benign and philosophic enthusiast. 



* There have been three most distinguished regenerators in the Hebrew 
nation, Moses, Judas Maccabaeus, and Jesus. Judas was the most suc- 
cessful in a military and political sense ; yet he is the least remembered. 
Jesus failed completely in this sense ; yet fame is too low a term to apply 
to him. A poor encouragement to the more vulgar conquerors who have 
not the assistance of legislative and philosophic merit, or of a noble cause, 
to sanctify their claims to fame ! Already the leading of men into any new 
domains of mind and heart is the enterprize which excites most interest. 
Is it not probable that in future centuries, far less interest will be felt by 
the majority of mankind in the histories of Alexander, Timour the Tartar, 
and Napoleon, than in those of George Fox, Wesley, St. Simon, or Owen ? 
The question in reference to Julius Caesar and Jesus Christ would have 
sounded more startling to Tacitus. The master of the Roman world himself 
would not easily have believed that his own date would come t be com- 
puted according lo the aera of a Jewish peasant. 

2g 



450 ON THE CHARACTER, VIEWS, 

The scantiness and mixed nature of the four Gospels only 
permit us, after all, to gain a view far from perfect of the real 
character of Jesus. They relate chiefly to the short period of 
his public appearance; the discourses introduced are made 
the vehicles for conveying the writers' thoughts on the con- 
troversies and events of their own times ; and the narratives 
are loaded with those miraculous additions which, in the 
opinion of the authors, were calculated to do honour to the 
founder of their church. Few readers will be disposed to the 
labour of making the deductions and allowances required on 
these several accounts as they proceed in the perusal of the 
Gospels. All but the few whose taste lies in an obscure and 
usually uninteresting kind of investigation, will prefer one or 
other of the more decided courses, — of taking the books as 
full warrant for the truth of all that they contain, or of neg- 
lecting their study entirely. Hence, as no other account of 
Christ of equal authority is likely ever to appear, the view 
taken of him must probably continue to be partially erroneous. 
By the world in general, Jesus must continue to be regarded 
as the Christ of the four Gospels, i.e., a combination of the 
individual Jesus with the thoughts and feelings of the Chris- 
tian Church after the fall of Jerusalem. Nor will the histo- 
rical inaccuracy of such a view appear to any but critics im- 
portant. The progress of thought amongst bodies of men 
presents matter of interest equally with the view of individual 
minds ; and we can excuse those interpolations and fictions, 
which, whilst they render more confused the aspect of the 
founder of the sect, present us with a view of that developed 
state to which his doctrines had arrived after an interesting 
and eventful interval. 

Enough is seen of Christ to leave the impression of a real 
and strongly marked character; and the dimness, which is 
left around it, permits the exercise of the imagination in a 



AND DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. 451 

manner both pleasing and useful. The indistinctness of the 
image allows it to become the gathering centre for all those 
highly exalted ideas of excellence which a more closely defined 
delineation might have prevented from resting upon it. To 
the superhuman powers attributed to him by his early fol- 
lowers, later admirers are at liberty to add all the qualities of 
mind and character which can delight and attract in a human 
being. To awaken men to the perception of moral beauty 
is the first step towards enabling them to attain it. But the 
contemplation of abstract qualities is difficult; some real or 
fictitious form is involuntarily sought as a substratum for the 
excellence which the moralist holds to view. Whilst no hu- 
man character in the history of the world can be brought to 
mind, which, in proportion as it could be closely examined, 
did not present some defects disqualifying it for being the 
emblem of moral perfection, we can rest with least check, or 
sense of incongruity, on the imperfectly known character of 
Jesus of Nazareth. If a representative be sought of human 
virtue, enough is still seen of his benevolent doctrine, attrac- 
tive character, and elevated designs, to direct our eyes to the 
Prophet and Martyr of Galilee. 



2g2 



( 452 ) 



CHAPTER XVII. 

COMPARISON OF THE PRECEPTS OF JESUS WITH THE 
JEWISH WRITINGS. 






The Jewish writings quoted for this purpose will be the 
Scriptures of the Old Testament ; the book of Ecclesiasticus 
by Jesus the son of Sirach, written about 200 years before 
Christ ; and the most ancient Rabbinical writings,* viz. : 

The Talmud, which consists of two parts, the Mishna and 
the Gemara. The Mishna, or first Talmud, is a collection of 
Pharisaic traditions made by Rabbi Jehuda Hakkadosh, A. D. 
141,t or, as some say, towards the close of the second century. 
The Gemara, or second part of the Talmud, consists of com- 
mentaries upon and additions to the Mishna, collected by 
Rabbi Jochanan ben Eliezer ; and this addition completed the 
Jerusalem Talmud, A. D. 469. A similar collection was made 
at Babylon at the beginning of the sixth century, and called 
the Babylonian Talmud. 

The book Sohar, or the Brightness, containing mystical in- 
terpretations of the Old Testament, chiefly those of R. Simeon 
ben Jochai, whose disciples made this compilation about A. D. 
170. 

The Midraschic books, containing collections of traditions, 
doctrines, and stories, derived from the schools of interpreta- 
tion. J These collections were made by some Rabbins, whose 



* The quotations which follow, from the Rabbinical writings, are chiefly 
selections from the copious works of Schoettgen on this subject, Horee He- 
braicse, and Jesus Verus Messias. 

f Lindo's Jewish Calendar. 

X After the Babylonish captivity the Jews founded a house of interpreta- 



COMPARISON OF THE PRECEPTS, ETC. 453 

names are unknown, about the time of Christ, and during the 
first, second, third, and fourth centuries. The names of the 
books are, Tanchuma, Rabboth, Pirke R. Eliezer, Mechilta, 
Siphra, Siphre, Pesikta Rabbetha, Pesikta Sotarta, Midrasch 
Schmuel, Tehillim, and Mischle. 

Since all these Rabbinical books were compiled after the time 
of Christ, it appears at first sight that no quotations from them 
can affect the question of the originality of the precepts of the 
Gospels. But it is unquestionable, that although the compi- 
lations are of these late dates, the sayings and traditions which 
they contain were much earlier ; and there are strong reasons 
for believing that they originated either before the time of 
Christ, or independently of any connexion with the writers of 
the New Testament. This point is considered at great length 
by Schoettgen, some of whose arguments I abridge below.* 
They appear sufficient to establish it as a general truth, that 

tions, in which the Rabbis and their disciples assembled daily for the purpose 
of explaining the Scriptures: It is possible that the institution existed be- 
fore the captivity, but there are no clear traces of it. The Rabbis sat on the 
higher seats ; the disciples on lower ones at their feet. The remaining 
space was occupied by the people or any persons who chose to come in to 
listen. The chief schools of this kind were at Tiberias, Cesarea, Lydda, 
Zippore, and Jafna. — Schoettgen. de Rabbin. Lectione ; Lightfoot, Centuria 
CJwrographica, lib. i. 

* The remaining books (besides the Mishna and Sohar) are more recent : 
yet they contain the words and doctrines of the most ancient Rabbis, who 
lived either before or about the time of Christ. The method of teaching 
then in use amongst the Jews was calculated to preserve not only the doc- 
trines, but the very words, of their masters. They were so scrupulous on 
this point, that in Sohar, Exod. fol. 36, he who alters the words of the law, 
or of a Rabbin, is threatened with exclusion from heaven. The exercise of 
the memory thus held such an important part in the education of the Pha- 
risaic Jews, and their understandings were so buried beneath a heap of doc- 
trines, that they made but a poor figure in matters requiring the free use of 
the judgment. 

If any one allege that the more recent Rabbins may have borrowed from 
the New Testament, I will not dispute on this point ; but that the older 
ones, quoted in the Talmud and the Midraschim, had read the New Testa- 
ment, and borrowed many things from it in order to impose upon the 



454 COMPARISON OF THE PRECEPTS OF 

it is extremely improbable that the ancient Rabbins borrowed 
from the New Testament ; consequently, although the want 
of an exact Rabbinical chronology must prevent our laying 
much stress on particular coincidences, the close resemblance 
of a large proportion of the Gospel precepts to many of those 
found in these books, leads us to infer that such precepts were 
not unknown to the Jews in the time of Christ, and might 
have proceeded very naturally from one assuming at that time 
the office of public instructor. 



Matt. v. 3 : " Blessed are the poor in spirit, for their 's is the kingdom of 
heaven." 

Prov. xv. 32 : " Before honour is humility" 

xvi. 19 : " Better to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, 
than to divide the spoil with the proud. iy 

xxix. 23 : "A man's pride shall bring him low, but honour 
shall uphold the humble in spirit." 

Micah vi. 8 : " What doth the Lord require of thee but to 
do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy 
God?" 



Christians, appears very improbable for many reasons : 2. They hated the 
Gentiles and their religion so much, that they did not consider their books 
worth reading, fearing also lest they should be seduced by them from their 
own faith. 2. The Jews were too inferior to the Christians in critical and 
philological skill to attempt such plagiarism. 3. The Jews of the first cen- 
turies could not foresee that Drusius, Lightfoot, and other critics, would in 
the course of time explore their writings, and collate them with the New 
Testament. 4. They themselves allow that the Gemara is written in such 
an obscure manner, that they never expected that the Christians could pene- 
trate into its mysteries. 5. The books of the Talmud and the others con- 
tain those same errors and faults of the Pharisees which Christ reprehended. 
If, then, the writers had read these things in the New Testament, it is hardly 
credible that they would have inserted them in their writings, and thereby 
have afforded a testimony to the truth of the words of Christ. 

Moreover, there occur subjects and opinions peculiar to the ancient Jewish 
Church before and during the time of Christ. It appears, then, that Christ 



JESUS WITH THE JEWISH WRITINGS. 455 

Pirke Aboth. c. iv. 4 : " Rabbi Levites Jafnensis said, Let 
it be thy chief desire to be of an humble spirit, for the hopes 
of man are as a worm." 

Sanhedrin,* fol. 43, 2 : " R, Jehuda ben Levi said, Whilst 
the temple stood, if any man offered a holocaust, he obtained 
the reward of a holocaust ; if an oblation, he obtained the re- 
ward due to an oblation. Rut if a man be of an humble spirit, 
the Scripture considers him as having offered all sacrifices." 

Tanchuma, fol. 84, 4 : ' c The law is not with those of a large 
spirit, but with him whose mind is contrite. 33 

Matt. v. 4 : " Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." 
Psalm cxlvii. 3 : " He healeth the broken in heart, and bind- 
eth up their wounds." 

Isaiah lxi. 1 — 3 : " The spirit of the Lord is upon me, be- 
cause the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto 
the meek, to comfort all that mourn, to give unto them beauty 
for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning." 

Ver. 5 : " Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." 

Psalm xxxvii. 11 : " Rut the meek shall inherit the earth, 
and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace." 



and his apostles did not entirely reject the good things which they found 
amongst the Jews, but used them felicitously against the Pharisaic abuses, 
thus slaying their adversaries with their own weapons, in which proceeding 
the wisdom of Christ is not sufficiently recognized by those ignorant of this 
kind of learning. — Sclioettgen. de Lectione Rabbinorum. 

The 3rd and 4th reasons are intended to meet the strained objection that 
the Rabbins might have borrowed from the New Testament with a view to 
mislead the Christians as to the originality of the precepts. That these 
precepts were borrowed on account of their merit is a more simple and ob- 
vious objection. But the other arguments are strongly against it: the 
temper shown by the Jews, as related in the Acts, and for some centuries 
later, leaves little doubt that the origination of a precept by the Nazarenes 
would have been a strong reason for rejecting it. But on the other hand 
the Christians were eager to quote Jewish authorities. 

* One of the sixty-one Tracts of the Mishna. 



456 COMPARISON OF THE PRECEPTS OF 

Matt. v. 6 : " Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteous- 
ness, for they shall be filled." 

Isaiah lviii. 10, 11 : "If thou draw out thy soul to the 

hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, . . . the Lord shall guide 

thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make 

fat thy bones, and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and a 

spring of water whose waters fail not." 

Ver. 7 : " Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." 

Schabbath, fol. 151, 2 : (tract of the Mishna) "Whosoever 
hath mercy on men, on him also God hath mercy. But he 
who sheweth no mercy to men, neither to him will God shew 
mercy." 

Ver. 8 : "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." 

Psalm xxiv. 3, 4 : " Who shall ascend into the hill of the 
Lord ? and who shall stand in his holy place ? He that hath 
clean hands and a pure heart." 

Isaiah xxxiii. 15, 16: "He that walketh righteously, and 
speaketh uprightly ... he shall dwell on high." 

Philo de Essssis : " They have attained the highest holiness 
in the worship of God, not by sacrificing animals, but by cul- 
tivating purity of heart." 

Ver. 10 : "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, 
for their's is the kingdom of heaven." 

Synopsis Sohar, p. 92 : " It is pleasing to the righteous to 
suffer afflictions on account of God, for thus are they freed from 
this state of exile." 

Ver. 14 : "Ye are the light of the world." 

Aboth R. Nathan, c. 24 : " When Rabban Jochanan ben 
Zaccai* was near death, he wept loudly. His disciples said to 
him, Rabbi, thou high pillar, light of the world, weighty ham- 
mer, why dost thou weep ?" 

* He presided at Jafna soon after the fall of Jerusalem. 



JESUS WITH THE JEWISH WRITINGS. 457 

Matt. v. 16: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see 
your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." 

Prov. iv. 18: "But the path of the just is as the shining 
light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." 

Mechilta, fol. 27, 2 : " Simeon ben Eliezer said, When the 
Israelites do the will of God, then his name is glorified in the 
world." 

Ver. 18 : "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one 
jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." 

Schir haschirim rabba, fol. 26, 1 : " It. Alexander said, 

Although all men in the world should gather together to 

whiten one plume of the raven, they could not effect it. So, 

although all men should assemble to abolish Jod> which is 

the least letter in the law, they could not succeed." 

Ver. 22 : " Whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell 
fire." 

Sohar, Exod. fol. 50, col. 299 : "It. Chiskias said, Whoso- 
ever calleth his neighbour resho, wicked, he is thrust into 
hell (Gehenna)." 

Ver. 24 : " First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer 
thy gift." 

Berachoth, fol. 23, 1 (tr. Mishna) : " Be not as the fools, 
who sin, and offer a sacrifice, but yet do not the works of 
repentance." 

Ver. 25 : " Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the 
way with him, lest," &c. 

Sohar chadasch, fol. 22, 2 : " It. Tanchum said, Come and 

see. How much ought a man to beware of sins, whilst the 

ways to repentance are yet open to him, before the way be 

closed !" 

Ver. 28 : " Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath com- 
mitted adultery with her already in his heart." 

Sepher Itasiel haggadol, fol. 9, 2 : " If, therefore, thou 



458 COMPARISON OF THE PRECEPTS OP 

restrainest thy soul, and lookest not on women, thy reward 
shall be double." 

Bammidbar rabba, sect. 9, fol. 203, 3, and Tanchuma, fol. 
61, 2 : " Our Rabbins said, If a woman, whilst she is with 
her husband, directs her heart to some one else whom she 
hath seen in the street, there is no greater adultery." 

Matt. v. 29 : " It is profitable for thee that one of thy members should 
perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell." 

Targum Hierosol. Genes, xxxviii. 26, in Jalkut Rubeni, 
fol. 65, 1 : " Judah speaks thus, It is better for me that I 
should be burned in this world with a little fire, than that I 
should be burned in the world to come with the devouring 
flame." 

Ver. 34, 37 : "I say unto you, Swear not at all, ... let your communi- 
cation be Yea, yea ; Nay, nay : for whatsoever is more than these, cometh 
of evil." 

Philo de Essseis : " They lead a life of continued purity, 
unstained by oaths and falsehoods." 

Josephus de Ess. : " Whatsoever they say also is firmer than 
an oath ; but swearing is avoided by them, and they esteem 
it worse than perjury; for they say that he who cannot be 
believed without swearing by God, is already condemned." 

Bammidbar rabba, sect. 22 : " God said to the Israelites, 
Think not that ye are allowed to swear by my name, even 
though ye swear rightly." 

Midrasch ruth rabba, sect. fol. 42, 4 : " R e Huna said in 
the name of R. Samuel ben Isaac, The yea of the righteous 
is yea, and their no is no" 

Ver. 36 : " Thou canst not make one hair white or black." 
Sepher Basiel Haggadol, fol. 10, 2 : "In the days of thy 
youth, who hath made thy hair black? If thou shouldst 
wash it with all kinds of nitre and borith, thou canst not 






JESUS WITH THE JEWISH WRITINGS. 459 

make one hair black, nor canst thou whiten one hair ; and yet 
in thy old age all thy hairs become white/' 

Matt. v. 38, 39 : " Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an 
eye, and a tooth for a tooth, but I say unto you, that ye resist not evil." 

Prov. xx. 22 : " Say not thou, I will recompense evil ; but 
wait on the Lord, and he shall save thee." 

Prov. xxiv. 29 : " Say not, I will do so to him, as he hath 
done to me."* 

Ver. 39 : " Whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek," &c. 

Bava Kama, fol. 92, 2 (tr. Mishna) : " For what is the pro- 
verb which is commonly said ? If thy neighbour calleth thee 
ass, place upon thyself an ass's saddle. For thus it is written, 
Genesis xvi. 8, Return to thy mistress, even though thou be 
much vexed by her." 

Ver. 42 : " Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would 
borrow of thee turn thou not away." 

Eccles. iv. 5 : " Turn not thine eye away from the needy." 
Deut. xv. 8 : " But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy 

poor brother, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need." 
Jos. de Ess. : " Every one of them gives what he hath to 

him that wanteth it." 

Ver. 43 : " Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy 
neighbour and hate thine enemy." 

Midrasch Tehillim, fol. 26, 4 : " R. Isaac said, Show not 
benevolence nor mercy to the Gentiles." 

Pesachim, fol. 113, 2 (tr. Mishna) : " R. Samuel ben Isaac 
says from the mouth of Raf, that it is allowed to hate him in 
whom any one observes a base action, although not to give 
witness against him." 

* The tone of the whole chapter in Proverbs is, however, very different 
from that in Matthew. Ver. 16 — 20 show that a forgiving spirit was not 
the motive acknowledged by the writer. 



460 COMPARISON OF THE PRECEPTS OF 

Aboth R. Nathan, c. 16 : " Let not a man accustom himself 
to say, Love the wise men, and hate their disciples ; love the 
disciples, and hate the rude multitude ; but love all men, and 
hate the Epicureans, who impel men into errors." 

Taanith, fol. 7, 2 (tr. Mishna) : " Speaking of the stiff- 
necked and shameless, R. Nachman ben Isaac said, It is 
allowed to hate him.' 3 

So also among the Karaites, It. Elijahu in addereth, ac- 
cording to Triglandius, p. 167: "But for men who commit 
injuries, and never return with benefits so as to obtain for- 
giveness, it is nowise forbidden to be avenged on them, and to 
keep anger against them." 

On which Triglandius observes, "It is clear from hence 
who those were, ' of old time/ to whom Christ opposes his f I 
say/ viz. not the law, but those who, contrary to the law, were 
so sparing of their philanthropy." And Schoettgen adds, 
"Although the Karaites were much better than the Pharisees, 
yet we see traces of remarkable corruption amongst them." 

Matt. v. 44 : " Love your enemies/' 

Schabbath, fol. 88, 3 (tr. Mishna) : " Our Rabbins deliver 
to us, They who receive scorn, but scorn no man ; who hear 
reproaches, and return them not ; who show love to men, and 
rejoice in tribulations, — of them the Scripture saith, They 
shall love him, and be as the sun going forth in his might." 

Aboth R. Nathan, c. 23 : " He is a hero who maketh his 
enemy a friend." 

Siphra, fol. 174, 1 : "If thou seest an Israelite who rejoices 
in the adversity of his enemy, he is perfectly impious." 

Ver. 44 : " Bless them that curse you." 

Sanhedrin, fol. 48, 2 ; 49, 1 : " R. Jehuda said from the 
mouth of Raf, They say thus in the common proverb, Suffer 
thyself to be cursed, but do not thou curse others." 



JESUS WITH THE JEWISH WRITINGS. 461 

Matt. v. 44 : " Pray for them which despitefully use you." 

Sohar Genes, fol. 67, col. 263 : " It is commanded a man, 

that he pray for the impious, so that they may be converted 

for the better, and not descend into hell." 

Ver. 45 : " That ye may be the children of your Father which is in 
heaven." 

Debarim rabba, sect. 7, fol. 259, 3 : " R. Jehuda ben Sal- 
lum said, God said to the Israelites, If ye wish to be known 
as being my children, attend to the law and to good works, 
then all shall know that ye are my children." 

Ver. 45 : "And sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." 

Taanith, fol. 7, 1 (tr. Mishna) : " R. Af hu said, The day on 
which rain is sent, is greater than the resurrection of the 
dead, for this pertains to the just alone ; but rain to the just 
and impious." 

Taanith, fol. 23, 2 : " When once the earth was suffering 
from drought, the Rabbins sent the boys from the school of 
Raf to Chone; and they, taking the hem of his garment, 
said, Give us rain. But he said before them, Lord of the 
whole world, do so for the sake of them who as yet know not 
the difference between a Father who can, and one who cannot, 
give rain." 

Sohar Exod. fol. 70, col. 277 : " God in this world feeds 
and preserves all things, the just and pious, and all the sons 
of men." 

Ver. 46 : " If ye love them which love you, what thank have ye ? do not 
even publicans the same?" 

Luke vi. 35 : "Do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again." 

Pirke Aboth, c. v. 10 : " There are four classes of men. 

One says, "What is mine is mine, and what is thine is thine : 

this is a middling class, and some say that the people of 

Sodom were such. Another says, What is mine is thine, and 



462 COMPARISON OF THE PRECEPTS OF 

what is thine is mine : of such are the common people. He 
who says, What is mine is thine, and what is thine let it be 
thine; — he is pious. But he who says, What is thine is 
mine, and what is mine let it be mine ; — he is impious." 

Matt. vi. 1 : "Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be 
seen of them : otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in 
heaven." 

Sohar, fol. 4, 1 : " Whosoever lendeth to any one in public, 
with him God dealeth according to justice. But he who does 
it secretly, with him dwelleth the divine blessing." 

Bava bathra, fol. 10, 2 (tr. Mishna) : " All alms and mercy 
done by the heathens are sins to them, since they do them 
only to obtain glory thereby." 

Ver. 3 : " When thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy 
right hand doeth." 

Bava bathra, fol. 10, 1 : "What are the alms which free 

from the second death ? Those which the giver knows not to 

whom he gives." 

Ver. 4 : "Thy Father which seeth in secret." 

Breschith rabba, sect. 85, fol. 84, 1 : " God said, Ye are 
able to testify of things done openly, but I of things done in 
secret." 

Sota, fol. 3, 1 (tr. Mishna, p. 80, Wagenseil) : " There is a 
tradition, that R. Meir* said, A man commits a sin in secret, 
but God divulges it openly." 

Synopsis Sohar, p. 94: "Whatsoever things are performed 
in secret, on them rests the blessing from above. But if a 
thing be done publicly, the blessing does not rest upon it." 

Pirke Aboth, c. iv. 4 : "R, Jochanan ben Bruka* said, 
Whosoever profaneth the name of God in secret, he shall be 
punished openly." 

* They nourished soon after the siege of Jerusalem. 



JESUS WITH THE JEWISH WRITINGS. 463 

Matt. vi. 6 : " When thou pray est, enter into thy closet." 
Tanchuma, fol. 22, 2 : "R. Benjamin ben Levi said, If any- 
one sitteth apart, or in his closet, and studieth the law, I will 
make him known to men." 

Sohar Genes, fol. 114, col. 454: "It is not needful that a 
man pray aloud, but he ought to pray in a low tone, so that 
his words may not be heard." 

Ver. 7 : " Use not vain repetitions." 

Eccles. vii. 14 : " Use not many words in a multitude of 
elders, and make not much babbling when thou prayest." 

Berachoth, fol. 61, 1 : " Let the words of a man always be 
few before the face of God." 

B. Elijahu the Karseite in Triglandius de Secta Karaeorum, 
p. 168 : " In vain will any one multiply idle words (in Hebrew 
the same as Matt. xii. 36) in his prayers." 

Ver. 9 : " Our Father which art in heaven." 

Bammidbar rabba, sect. 17: "God is the Father, and the 
Israelites are his children." Then follows the proof that God 
had performed all the peculiar parental offices for Israel, viz. 
teaching the law, supplying food, &c. 

Ver. 9 : " Hallowed be thy name." 

Eccl. xxiii. 9 : " Use not thyself to the naming of the Holy 
One." 

That the same formula of prayer was known to the Jews, 
is shown by a quotation from their ritual books, by Vitringa 
de Synagoga Vet. lib. 3, p. 962. ' l His great name be mag- 
nified, and hallowed in the world, which he created according 
to his pleasure, and may his kingdom reign. May his re- 
demption spring forth, and the anointed (Messiah) quickly 
come, and deliver his people." 

Sohar Exod. fol. 55, col. 217: "There is no sanctification 
in heaven, unless there be sanctification on earth." 



464 COMPARISON OF THE PRECEPTS OF 

Sohar Deut. fol. 127, col. 503 : " When the number of sins 
is increased on the earth, then the holy name is not glorified 
on earth/'* 

Matt. vi. 10 : " Thy kingdom come." 

Sanhedrin, fol. 28, 2 : " R. Jehuda and R. Seira both said, 
Prayers which say nothing concerning the kingdom, do not 
deserve the name of prayers/' 

Sohar Genesis, fol. 103, 409 : " When a man goeth to bed, 
first of all he ought to take unto himself (in se suscipere) the 
kingdom of heaven. Afterward, let him recite one or another 
kind of prayer." 

Ver. 10 : u In earth, as in heaven." 

Sohar Exod. fol. 28, col. 110, 111 : " God wills that his 
name be glorified on earth, as it is glorious in heaven/ 3 

Sohar Exod. fol. 33, col. 131 : " When the Israelites ap- 
proached Mount Sinai, angels came to them ; these are the 
angels in heaven, and the Israelites are the angels on earth ; 
they hallow the divine name in heaven, the Israelites hallow 
it on earth." 

Ver. 11 : " Give us this day our daily bread." 

Prov. xxx. 8 : " Feed me with food convenient for me." 

Ver. 12 : " Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." 
Rosch haschana, fol. 17, 2 : "A man borrowed from an- 
other, and fixed a time for re-payment before the king, and 
swore by the life of the king. When the time was past, and 

* Schoettgen remarks here, " Let it not be said that I maintain that 
Christ borrowed his prayers from the Jews, which opinion is very far from 
mine. For Christ, who is true God, consubstantial with the Father, has 
infinite wisdom, through which, even in the state of inanition, he was far 
wiser than all men, and therefore he could easily have prescribed a thou- 
sand formulas different from those of the Jews. But it pleased his wisdom 
to retain those things which he found to be good amongst the Jews, in 
which thing we, his followers, properly acquiesce." 



JESUS WITH THE JEWISH WRITINGS. 465 

he could not pay his debt, he came as a suppliant to the king, 
who said, What thou hast done against me is forgiven thee ; 
but go to thy creditor, and seek forgiveness also of him. The 
same proceeding is held with respect to the sins committed 
by a man against God, and those which he commits against 
his neighbour." 

Joma, fol. 85, 2 (tr. Mishna) : " E. Eleazar ben Azaria* 
gave this opinion : The day of expiation expiates the things 
which a man hath committed against God; but the things 
which he hath committed against his neighbour it doth not 
expiate until he hath returned into favour with him." 

Synopsis Sohar, p. 90, n. 79: " A man ought every night 
to forgive the fault of him that offendeth him." 

Ver. 13 : " For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for 
ever." 

1 Chron. xxix. 11 : "Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and 

the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty : 

for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine ; thine 

is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above 

all." 

Ver. 14 : " For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father 
will also forgive you." 

Eccles. xxviii. 2 : " Forgive thy neighbour the hurt that he 

hath done unto thee ; so shall thy sins also be forgiven when 

thou prayest." 

Ver. 17 : "When thou fastest, anoint thine head and wash thy face." 

Breschith rabba,f sect. 74, fol. 73, 1 : " Speaking of Isaac 

mourning for Joseph, R. Levi and R. Simeon said, He wept 

in his house, but when he came into public he washed and 

anointed himself, he ate and drank. But why did he not do 

* Soon after the fall of Jerusalem. 

f A part of the Midraschic book Rabboth. 

2 H 



466 COMPARISON OF THE PRECEPTS OF 

that openly ? God answered, Although he himself hath not 
made the thing manifest, yet I will make it manifest." 

Matt vi. 19, 20 : " Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth .... 
but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven." 

Eccles. xxix. 11 : " Lay up thy treasure according to the 
commandments of the Most High, and it shall bring thee 
more profit than gold." 

Berachoth, fol. 33, 2 : ' t R. Chanina said, from the mouth 
of E. Simeon ben Jochai, " In the treasury of God there is 
no treasure but that of the fear of God, as Esaias saith, 
xxxiii. 6, The fear of God is his treasure." 

Bava bathra, fol. 11, 1 : " The brethren of King Mombazus 
reproached him for dilapidating the treasures of his ancestors, 
to which his fathers had always added. He replied, My 
fathers collected treasures on the earth, but I in heaven : my 
fathers laid up treasures in a place where the hand (of man) 
could rule them, but I lay up in a place whither no hand can 
reach." 

Ver. 25 : " Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what 
ye shall drink ; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the 
life more than meat, and the body than raiment?" 

Psalm lv. 22 : " Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he 
shall sustain thee ; he shall never suffer the righteous to be 
moved." 

Philo de Ess. : " They eat no food more costly than coarse 
bread seasoned with salt . . . and drink no liquid but the 
clear water of the stream." 

Ver. 26 : Behold the fowls of the air : for they sow not, neither do they 
reap, nor gather into barns ; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them." 

In the Gemara, Jerusalem Talmud, Kidduschin, according 

to Buxtorf 's Lexicon, col. 2028, " Hast thou ever seen a lion 

carrying burdens, a stag gathering the summer fruits, a fox 

planting, or a wolf selling olives ? And yet they are fed 



JESUS WITH THE JEWISH WRITINGS. 467 

without labour. But why were they created ? To serve me. 
And why was I created ? To serve my creator. Hence, from 
the less to the greater I conclude : if those creatures which 
were created to serve me are fed without labour, should not 
I rather, who was created to serve my creator ? What is the 
cause, then, for which I am compelled to obtain my food by 
labour ? Answer, My sins." 

Ver. 30 : " O ye of little faith." 

Mechilta, fol. 32, 1 : "He who created the day, created 
also the food thereof. Wherefore R. Eliezer said, Whosoever 
hath whereof to eat for to-day, and saith, But what shall I 
eat to-morrow ? he is of little faith." 

Sota, fol. 48, 2, p. 1075 edit. Wagenseil : " There is a tra- 
dition that R. Eliezer, surnamed the Great, said, Whosoever 
keepeth a mouthful remaining in his canister, and saith, 
What am I to eat to-morrow ? he is of those who are little 
in faith." 

Sohar Exod. fol. 26, col. 102 : " All the children of the 
world look up and raise their eyes to God — nay, even all the 
believers seek every day their food from God, and on that 
account pour forth their prayers to God. What is the 
reason? This, — he who calleth on God for his food, he 
causeth the world every day to receive a blessing. Where- 
fore a man ought not to cook his food for the next day, nor 
to reserve any thing from to-day for the morrow. But he 
who asketh food only for to-day, he is called a man of 
faith. 3 ' 

Ver. 33 : " But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteous- 
ness, and all these things shall be added unto you." 

Berachoth, fol. 35, 2 : " Whilst the Israelites do the will 

of God, their labour is performed for them by others ; but 

when they do not the will of God, then they are compelled 

to do their labours with their own hands ," 

2h2 



468 COMPARISON OP THE PRECEPTS OP 

Avoda Sara, fol. 19, 2 : " R. Joshua ben Levi said, 
Whosoever giveth labour to the law, his wealth is in- 
creased." 

Matt. vii. 2 : " With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged." 

Schabbath, fol. 127, 2 : "Our Rabbins have delivered 
to us : He who judgeth his neighbour by the way of equity, 
of him shall others judge in the same manner " 

Ver. 11 : " If ye then being evil," &c. 

Breschith rabba, sect. 33, fol. 32, 1 : " In a time of 
drought, a man who had divorced his wife was seen to give 
her money. R. Tanchuma said to him, ' Why hast thou 
given her money ? ' The man answered, ' I saw that she 
was living miserably, and was filled with pity for her/ In 
that same hour R. Tanchuma raised his face to heaven, 
saying : ' Lord of all worlds, see what is done ! When that 
woman had no food, this man saw her in her affliction, and 
was filled with compassion for her. But thou art he of whom 
it is written, Thou art merciful and kind ; and we are the 
sons of thy beloved, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; how much 
the rather oughtest thou to be filled with compassion towards 
usF Immediately rain descended, and the earth was re- 
vived." 

In Vajikra rabba, sect. 34, fol. 179, 1, the words of Tan- 
chum are as follows : " Lord of the whole world ! this is a 
miserable and cruel man, and yet he hath been filled with 
compassion," &c. 

Ver. 12 : " Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men 
should do to you, do ye even so to them : for this is the law and the 
prophets." 

Tobit iv. 15 : " Do that to no man which thou hatest." 
Aboth _R. Nathan, c. 15 : " As a man wisheth himself to 
be honoured, so let him shew the same honour to others. 



JESUS WITH THE JEWISH WRITINGS. 469 

And as a man doth not wish to hear himself ill spoken of, so 
let him beware of speaking ill of others." 

Ver. 14: " Few there be that find it." 

The doctrine of the small number of them that were saved 
was held by the Jews. 

Succa, fol. 45, 2 : (t R. Jeremias said from the mouth of 
R. Simeon ben Jochai, I saw the sons of the feast (the 
blessed), who were very few in number. If there are a 
thousand, I and my son are of the number ; if a hundred, 
I and my son are of the number ; if two, I and my son are 
they." 

Ver. 21 : "But he that doeth the will of my Father which is in 
heaven." 

Pirke Aboth, c. ii. 4 : " R. Gamaliel* said, Do the will of 
God as thine, so that he may do thy will as his. Lay aside 
thine own will for the sake of his, so that he may render vain 
the will of others for the sake of thine." 

Ver. 24 : " Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth 
them." 

Vajikra rabba, sect. 35, fol. 179, 4 : " It is a tradition of 
R. Chija, We learn the law, that we may do it. He who 
hath learned, and doeth not, it would have been better if he 
had not been created. R. Jochanan said, He who hath 
learned, and doeth not, it would have been better if he had 
not seen the light of this world." 

Debarim rabba, sect. 7, fol. 259, 2 : " R. Simeon ben 
Chelpatha said, He who hath learned the words of the law 
and doeth them not, is more guilty than he who hath learned 



* R. Gamaliel the elder, the preceptor of Paul, died A.D. 52. R, 
Gamaliel the second, or of Jama, flourished soon after the fall of Jeru- 
salem. 



470 COMPARISON Of THE PRECEPTS OF 

nothing. A certain king sent two gardeners into his garden ; 
the one planted trees, but afterwards cut them down ; the 
other planted nothing, and cut down nothing. With which 
of these was the king wroth ? Was it not with him who 
planted^and cut down V 

Matt. vii. 24, 25 : "I will liken him to a wise man .... And the 
rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew," &c. 

Pirke Aboth, c. iii. 17 : " It. Eleazar ben Azariah said, 
He whose knowledge is greater than his works, to whom is 
he like ?— to a tree, whose branches are many, but his roots 
few, and the wind rushing upon it teareth it up. But he 
whose works are greater than his knowledge, to whom is he 
like ? — to a tree whose branches are few and his roots many, 
against which if all the winds in the world should beat, they 
cannot move it from its place." 

Ver. 16 : " Wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." 
Schir Haschirim rabba, fol. 15, 3 : " R. Jehuda the son 
of It. Simon said, God said concerning the Israelites, To- 
wards me they are harmless (integri) as doves, but towards 
the nations cunning (astuti) as serpents." 

Ver. 28 : " Fear not them which are able to kill the body, but are not 
able to kill the soul." 

Jos. de Ess. : " Their doctrine is, that bodies are cor- 
ruptible, but that the souls are immortal and continue for 
ever ; . . . and when they are set free from the bonds of the 
flesh, they then rejoice and mount upwards." 

Ver. 35 : " For I am come to set a man at variance against his father," 
&c. 

Sota, fol. 49, 2 : " A little before the coming of Mes- 
sias, the son shall provoke the father, the daughter shall 
rise against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her 



JEStJS WITH THE JEWISH WHITINGS. 471 

mother-in-law; finally, each shall have his enemies in his 
household." 

Sanhedrin, fol. 97, 1, ex versione Edzardi ; " R. Nehorai 
said, In the age when the Messiah shall come, the young 
men will scorn the face of the elders, the elders will stand 
against the young men, and the daughter against her mother- 
in-law, and the men of that age will have faces as dogs 
(impudence), nor will the son revere his father."* 

Matt. xii. 34 : " Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." 
Sepher rasiel haggadol, fol. 10, 1 : " The tongue utter- 

eth the hidden secrets of the heart, whether they be good or 

bad." 

xviii. 4 : " Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child, the same 
is greatest," &c. 

Tanchuma, fol. 36, 4 : " It. Ame said, It is great glory 
to a young man, when he becometh as little children." 

Bava Mezia, fol. 84, 2 (tr. Mishna) : " Whosoever maketh 
himself little on account of the words of the law in this 
world, he becometh great in the world to come." 

Ver. 7 : " Wo unto the world because of offences." 

Sohar Genes, fol. 33, col. 132 : " Wo to the world, for 
they are stupid in heart, and with closed eyes, so that they 
understand not the mysteries of the law." 

Ibid. fol. 37, col. 146: " Wo to the world, for they have 
eyes, and see not." 

xix. 17 : " If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." 
Eccles. xix. 19 : " The knowledge of the commandments 
of the Lord is the doctrine of life ; and they that do things 
which please him shall receive the fruit of the tree of im 
mortality." 

* The whole of this is, probably, an enlargement of Malachi iv. 6, and 
Micah vii. 6. 



472 COMPARISON OF THE PRECEPTS OF 

Matt. xx. 26, 27 : " Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be 
your servant." 

Philo de Ess. : " They have no slaves among them, but 

all are free, and all in their turn administer to others." 

xxii. 2 — 10 : Parable of the marriage of the king's son. 

Sohar Levit. fol. 40, col. 158 : " A king made a splendid 
feast, and said to his servants, Ye have been every day at 
your homes ; one hath pursued his work, another hath gone 
to his merchandize, a third to his field. But on this day, 
when ye ought all to take part in my joy, I will not that ye 
attend to your work, or your merchandize, or your fields, but 
ye ought all to be in readiness, for the day is mine." 

Ver. 7 : " But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth ; and he sent 
forth his armies and destroyed those murderers, and burnt up their city." 

Tanchuma, fol. 86, 3 : " Know that the king is wroth 
with you, and will send his legions against the city, and 
destroy it." 

Ver. 21 : " Unto God the things that are God's." 

Pirke Aboth, c. Ill, 7 : " R. Eleazar Bartolensis said, 
Give to him (God) of his own, since whatsoever things thou 
hast are his." 

Ver. 30 : " In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in 
marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven." 

Berachoth, fol. 17, 1 : " Raf frequently had these words 
in his mouth, In the world to come they will neither eat 
nor drink, nor beget children, nor carry on trade ; neither 
envy, nor hatred, nor strife, is there ; but the just will sit 
encircled with crowns, and will rejoice in the splendour of 
the divine majesty." 

Sohar Chadasch, fol. 20, 1 : " All the souls of the just are 
in the seventh heaven, and become ministering angels, and 
celebrate God." 



JESUS WITH THE JEWISH WRITINGS. 473 

Ver. 36 : " Which is the great commandment in the law 1 " 

Neither Lightfoot nor Schoettgen quotes any Rabbinical 
sayings corresponding with the answer of Jesus.* 

Ver. 40 : "On these two commandments hang all the law and the 
prophets." 

Deut. iv. 5 : " And thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy 
mind." 

Levit. xix. 18 : " Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any 
grudge against the children of thy people ; but thou shalt 
love thy neighbour as thyself." 

Matt, xxiii. 8 : "Be not ye called Rabbi." 

Nedarim, fol. 62, 1 (tr. Mishna). A tradition concerning 
the words of Deut. xxx. 20 : " Let not a man say, I will 
apply diligently to the study of the law, so that they may 
call me Rabbi ; I will attend to the Talmud, so that I may 
become an Elder, and obtain a place in the academy. But 
thou shouldest study from the love of God, and at length 
honours will be attained." 

Ver. 23 : " The weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and 
faith." 

Hosea vi. 6: "For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; 

and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." 

Mark vii. 8 : " Laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the 
tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups : and many other such 
like things ye do." 

Sota, fol. 4, 2 : " R. Serika said from the mouth of R. 
Eliezer, Whosoever neglecteth his washing, he is rooted out 

* Mendelsohn relates the following story, Jerus. vol. ii. p. 110 : " Rabbi," 
said a pagan to Hillel the elder (who lived in the century before Christ), 
" wilt thou teach me the whole law while I am standing on one leg ?" Hillel 
replied, " Son, love thy neighbour like thyself. This is the text of the 
law ; all the rest is commentary. Now go thy ways and study." 



474 COMPARISON OF THE PRECEPTS OP 

of the world. R. Chija ben Ase said from the mouth of 
Raf, If any one useth the first water (i. e. before eating) he 
mnst raise his hands ; but if he useth the latter water, he 
must hold his hands downward." 

Mark xii. 44 : " She of her want did cast in all that she had, even all 
her living." 

Sohar, fol. 3, 1 : " A poor man's sacrifice is by far the 
most pleasing to God, for he offereth two sacrifices; one, 
the sacrifice itself; the other, inasmuch as he offers his own 
nourishment and blood ; for he hath nothing to eat, and yet 
he offereth sacrifice." 

Luke xi. 41 : " But rather give alms of such things as ye have, and 
behold all things are clean unto you." 

Isaiah lviii. 6, 7 : " Is not this the fast that I have chosen ? 
to loose the bands of wickedness .... is it not to deal thy 
bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are 
cast out to thy house ? when thou seest the naked, that thou 
cover him ; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own 
flesh? Then shall thy light spring forth as the morn- 
ing," &c. 

Luke xii. 19, 20 : " And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much 
goods laid up for many years : take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. 
But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of 
thee." 

Eccles xi. 19 : " Whereas he (the rich man) saith, I have 

found rest, and now will eat continually of my goods ; and 

yet he knoweth not what time shall come upon him, and 

that he must leave those things to others, and die." 



Notwithstanding the striking resemblance thus shown 
between a great part of the Gospels and the Rabbinical 
writings, it is impossible not to acknowledge a general 



Jesus with the Jewish writings, 475 

superiority in the former. Not only are particular precepts 
delivered with greater force, but the whole collection is, 
for the most part, free from the trifles and absurdities which 
abound in the latter : and where a difference or contrast 
occurs, liberality and good sense usually predominate on the 
side of Jesus. He appears to have been well acquainted with 
the doctrines which proceeded from the Jewish schools ; but, 
unlike the Pharisees, he claimed the privilege of independent 
thought in selecting, altering, or adding to them ; the Mes- 
siah was entitled to neglect the usual servile method of 
literal quotation, and to set his own " I say" above the 
authority of any Rabbin. A teacher thus assuming an office 
which could allow him to neglect the charge either of pla- 
giarism or of heresy, would have at the same time the ad- 
vantages arising from the use of stores already provided, and 
those resulting from the free exercise of the mind's own 
powers. A system of doctrine proceeding under such circum- 
stances from a character like that which we have endeavoured 
to trace, might be expected to present a remarkable com- 
bination both of peculiarities and of excellences. The selec- 
tion of the most striking features from collections of written 
and traditional precepts is, probably, best performed by the 
quick intuitive sense of powerful minds, unburdened by 
extensive learning, and whose original energy has not been 
repressed by an habitual submission to scholastic forms and 
authorities. The preceptive part of the Gospels appears 
before us as the result obtained by the sifting of the Jewish 
scriptures and of the lessons of the Jewish schools by such a 
mind, and by the infusion of fresh and purer material from 
its own resources. 



( 476 ) 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 

Whatever be the spirit with which the four Gospels be 
approached, it is impossible to rise from the attentive perusal 
of them without a strong reverence for Jesus Christ. Even 
the disposition to cavil and ridicule is forced to retire before 
the majestic simplicity of the prophet of Nazareth.* Unlike 
Moses or Mahomet, he owes no part of the lustre which 
surrounds him to his acquisition of temporal power; his is 
the ascendancy which mankind, in proportion to their mental 
advancement, are least disposed to resist — that of moral and 
intellectual greatness. Besides, his cruel fate engages men's 
affections on his behalf, and gives him an additional hold 
upon their allegiance. A noble-minded reformer and sage, 
martyred by crafty priests and brutal soldiers, is a spectacle 
which forces men to gaze in pity and admiration. The pre- 
cepts from such a source come with an authority which no 
human laws could give ; and Jesus is more powerful on the 
cross of Calvary than he would have been on the throne of 
Israel. 

The virtue, wisdom, and sufferings of Jesus, then, will 
secure to him a powerful influence over men so long as 
they continue to be moral, intellectual and sympathizing 

* Paine calls him a virtuous reformer. 

" II fallaitbien qu'au fond il fut un sage, puisqu'il declamait contre les 
petres imposteurs, et contre les superstitions ; mais on lui impute des choses 
qu'un sage n'a pu ni faire ni dire." — Voltaire s xx. Dialogue, by the Abbe de 
Tilladet. 

Mendelsohn says, that intelligent Jews consider Jesus as a generous 
enthusiast. Jerusalem, vol. ii. 



CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 477 

beings. And as the tendency of human improvement is 
towards the progressive increase of these qualities, it may- 
be presumed that the empire of Christianity, considered 
simply as the influence of the life, character, and doctrine 
of Christ over the human mind, will never cease. 

The most fastidious scepticism is forced to admit the truth 
of the facts, which such a view of Christianity requires. 
For no one who regards historical evidence will deny that 
such a person was put to death in Judea, and that he gave 
rise to a new system of religion. The four Gospels on these 
points are strengthened by many other testimonies, agree 
with each other, and contain relations conformable to the 
order of nature. Moreover, the excellence of the preceptive 
parts of the Gospels carries with it its own evidence in all 



But when a higher office is claimed for Christ, that of 
a messenger accredited from God by a supernatural birth, 
miraculous works, a resurrection, and an ascension, we may 
reasonably expect equal strength of evidence. But how stands 
the case ? The four Gospels on these points are not confirmed 
by testimony out of the church, disagree with each other, 
and contain relations contrary to the order of things. The 
evidence on these points is reduced to the authority of these 
narratives themselves. In them, at least, the most candid 
mind may require strong proofs of authenticity and veracity ; 
but again, what is the case ? They are anonymous produc- 
tions j their authorship is far from certain ; they were written 
from forty to seventy years after the events which they profess 
to record; the writers do not explain how they came by their 
informati6n ; two of them appear to have copied from the first ; 
all the four contain notable discrepancies and manifest contra- 
dictions ; they contain statements at variance with histories of 
acknowledged authority ; some of them relate wonders which 



478 CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 

even many Christians are obliged to reject as fabulous ; and in 
general they present no character by which we can distin- 
guish their tales of miracles from the fictions which every 
church has found some supporters ready to vouch for on its 
behalf. 

In these books, and by the propagators of Christianity, 
the miraculous part of Christ's history is presented to us 
not as an indifferent fact, but as one which is to influence 
our whole life and conduct : the belief or non-belief of it is 
even to decide our condition in another world : we are called 
upon to count all things as loss for the sake of Christ : " He 
that believeth in his heart that God hath raised him from the 
dead, shall be saved;" " He that believeth not shall be 
damned." One would have expected that the clearness of 
the evidence would have been in proportion to the necessity 
for belief, and that a fact of which the recognition was re- 
quisite to the salvation or improvement of mankind in after 
ages, would have been attested in such a manner as to leave 
no doubt of it in any reasonable mind. Mark, or the person 
who has finished his Gospel for him, would have done more to 
promote belief, if, instead of threatening damnation on the 
want of it, he had explained the apparent contradictions be- 
tween his account and Matthew's ; — how it was that the latter 
sends the eleven disciples into Galilee, whilst the others seem 
to represent them as remaining at Jerualem ; why Matthew 
omitted all notice of the ascension ; where and when Jesus 
was seen by the five hundred brethren mentioned by Paul ; 
and especially how he and his fellow evangelists obtained their 
information. But the fact is, that the accounts of Christ's 
resurrection are in so imperfect and slovenly a state, that the 
evidence afforded by them would be hardly deemed sufficient 
to establish an ordinary fact of any importance in a court of 
judicature. The accounts of the crucifixion are very cir- 



CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 479 

cumstantial, and agree in the main so well, that we should 
have no difficulty in admitting this as a fact, even if it were 
not confirmed by Tacitus, Suetonius, and the Jews. But 
when the writers come to the account of the resurrection, on 
which, from its not being confirmed by heathen or Jewish 
testimonies, from its deviation from the laws of nature, and 
from the great importance attached to the belief of it, we 
should have looked, from their hands at least, for the fullest, 
clearest, and most accordant evidence, — here we find the story 
replete with confusion, contradiction, and chasms, and even 
to be made up apparently of fragments of different dates. 

If the resurrection of Christ were necessary, as is pretended, 
to account for the rest of his history, and the origin of Chris- 
tianity, the attempts made to strain out a consistent account 
of it from the materials before us, by inventing supplementary 
facts ad libitum, might deserve some attention. But there is 
in reality no such necessity. The order of nature, the com- 
bination of human feelings and motives at the particular 
juncture in question, have been shown to be enough to ac- 
count for the life and death of Jesus, and the proceedings of 
his followers. And whatever be our disposition to show de- 
ference towards Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, or the per- 
sons writing under their names, the inquirers for truth are 
obliged to ask, Who are these that we should believe them in 
contradiction to the known order of nature, and receive from 
them, as indubitable truth, stories which, coming from other 
mouths, we should reject at once as palpable fiction ? Where 
are the proofs of their caution, judgment, and veracity? 
How are we assured that they could neither be misled, nor 
attempt to mislead? They vouch for the resurrection of 
Christ ; but who shall vouch for them, and certify that they 
were so far different from the rest of men as to be void of 
credulity, and incapable of mistake or falsehood ? What 



480 CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 

witness is there to prove that they were so insensible to 
common human motives, as to be incapable of gratifying 
their love of the marvellous, and of serving their own cause, 
and that of their church, by either adopting or inventing 
" idle tales ? " 

That the resurrection of Jesus was intended as a pledge to 
mankind of a general resurrection, is a delightful idea. But 
the only safe basis for such a belief is historical evidence. If 
this fail to establish the fact, the agreeable nature of the 
belief is so far from proving it, that it rather furnishes an 
explanation of the general prevalence of the belief in the face 
of insufficient evidence. 

It is not pretended that the foregoing pages prove the 
absolute impossibility of Christ's miracles and resurrection. 
If we be so determined, we may still indulge in the belief of 
them, by overlooking difficulties, inventing hypotheses, and 
concluding that the whole is a trial of our faith. But if the 
reasoner will still hold the reality of these miracles, to what 
scheme must he have recourse ? That God has caused a 
deviation from the course of nature for the instruction of 
mankind, and has left the account of it to be conveyed to 
them by means which, on the closest examination, occasion 
it to bear a strong resemblance to human fictions ; a suppo- 
sition so monstrous and perplexing, that, notwithstanding the 
value of the supposed lesson, our minds turn at last from this 
mode of teaching in weariness, and resolve to be contented 
to learn where we are sure, at least, that the lessons proceed 
from God himself — and that is in nature. 

The miraculous birth, works, resurrection, and ascension 
of Christ, being thus successively surrendered, to be classed 
amongst the fables of an obscure age, what remains of Chris- 
tianity ? and what is there in the life and doctrine of Jesus 
that they should still claim the attention and respect of man- 



CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 481 

kind in remote ages ? This : Christianity forms a striking 
passage in the history of human nature, and appears as one 
of the most prominent of the means employed in its improve- 
ment. It no longer boasts of a special divine origin, but 
shares in that which the Theist attributes to the world and 
the whole order of its events. It has presented to the world 
a system of moral excellence ; it has led forth the principles 
of humanity and benevolence from the recesses of the schools 
and groves, and compelled them to take an active part in the 
affairs of life. It has consolidated the moral and religious 
sentiments into a more definite and influential form than had 
before existed, and thereby constituted an engine which 
has worked powerfully towards humanizing and civilizing 
the world. 

Moreover, Christianity has given currency to the sublime 
doctrines of man's relationship to the Deity, and of a future 
state. The former was a leading feature of Judaism, and the 
latter of Platonism. Christianity has invested them with the 
authority of established principles, and thereby contributed 
much to the moral elevation of mankind. 

It is impossible to disguise the momentous consequence of 
the rejection of the divine origin of Christianity — that a 
future state is thereby rendered a matter of speculation, 
instead of certainty. If Jesus was not seen after he was 
risen, we no longer see immortality brought to light; the 
veil which nature has left before this mysterious subject, still 
remains undrawn ; and, like the Jews, and all heathen 
nations, we are compelled to rest satisfied with the conjectures 
to which reason alone can attain. With respect to one of 
the subjects most interesting to man, we return into the 
position in which the whole race stood for four thousand 
years, and in which a great part has remained ever since. 

The withdrawal of a proof on which we had relied is not, 

2 i 



482 CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 

however, equivalent to a disproof. The arguments of natural 
reason, on behalf of a future state, still remain ; and when it 
is recognized that these are all which the order of things 
allows of, the mind which feels the want of this doctrine may 
learn to dwell upon them with increased interest, and to be 
content with that degree of evidence on this point which has 
been compatible with the happy existence of many genera- 
tions of men, and with the tranquillity of many virtuous and 
reflecting minds in all ages. Christianity has added, at least, 
so much light to the subject, that it has shown, on a large 
scale, the effect which the belief of this doctrine has upon the 
character ; and if it be allowed that this effect is the strength- 
ening and refinement of virtue, there arises an additional and 
strong presumption of the truth of the doctrine.* 



* If the mind be supposed to be distinct from the brain, the dissolution 
of the latter affords no argument against the continued existence of the 
former. And even if the mind be considered to be merely a function of 
the brain, the objection arising hence to a future life of individuals is not of 
much weight. For, with our present imperfect knowledge of the ultimate 
composition and structure of the particles of the brain, we cannot tell 
whether the portions of it supposed to be connected with identity, con- 
sciousness, moral and intellectual power, may not contain some provision 
for transmitting these functions to entirely different forms of matter after 
death. Since these same principles are continued in or transferred to suc- 
cessive accretions of matter during life, there is no absurdity in supposing 
that after death the transference may be made to an entirely new recipient. 
The revival of the mental powers after sleep, or cerebral injuries, shows that 
these powers maybe, for a time, to all appearance gone, and yet be capable 
of renewal with all those characteristics which give the common notion 
of identity. Now, we can imagine that the lethargy should continue long- 
enough to allow of the whole, instead of a part, of the particles of the body 
being replaced by new ones, and yet that the consciousness of identity 
might return ; a case very nearly approaching that of the supposed trans- 
ference in the case of death. 

Hence the objections to a future life of individuals, on physical grounds, 
seem only to amount to this, — that we are as yet ignorant of the means by 
which it could be brought about. But ignorance of this kind is so frequent, 
even with respect to many very palpable facts, that it forms but a slight 
argument against a well-urged possibility ; and incredulity with respect to 



CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 483 

Yet if all the efforts of reason should end in demonstrating 
the mere probability of a future state, what must be our 
conclusion ? That certainty on this point is not at present 
necessary, nor even desirable for men; and that the objects 
of their existence in this world are best answered by their 
having an obscure rather than a clear view of another. 
Whilst it was thought that Jesus had brought the guarantee 
of heaven for man's immortality, we persuaded ourselves that 
this was necessary to men's improvement and happiness. 
We were mistaken ; no such guarantee has been given ; it 
is wise still to acquiesce, and to conclude that happiness and 
improvement are best promoted by our present ignorance. 

It is undeniable that, to reflecting and religious minds, 



the doctrine in question must proceed from its improbability, as arising 
from other than physical considerations. 

But it can hardly be denied, that the moral considerations, viz. the 
desire for immortal life peculiar to man, his curiosity with respect to the 
cause and end of his own existence, his conceptions of perfection, his ten- 
dency to connect himself with the Deity and the invisible world, the 
strength of human attachments, the sufferings of good men, and the like, — 
do make out a case deserving of much attention. These facts are of a 
different kind from those on which scientific conclusions rest, but are not 
therefore to be regarded as a less sure basis for reasoning. On the con- 
trary, we might naturally expect, that the evidence of a future existence of 
man would arise out of facts connected with his mental and moral constitu- 
tion : in which case it is probable, that only with the perfection of this part 
of his nature will the evidence on this subject appear in the clearness which 
produces certainty. 

That the Divine mind bears some resemblance to the human, is shown 
by the contrivances in the creation, of which many are similar in kind, 
although higher in degree, to the indications of human art and skill. The 
same correspondence of thought and feeling, if the terms may be used, is 
seen in the apparent ends and objects of the contrivances. This fact of a 
resemblance being thus established in respect to qualities which we know 
to belong to the human mind, we may reason the other way, and infer that 
the human mind bears a resemblance to the Divine, with respect to the 
attributes which we know to belong to the latter. The permanence of the 
creation indicates the immortality of the Deity ; hence arises a probability 
that the human mind, in those parts at least which resemble the Divine, is 
immortal also. 

2 i 2 



484 CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 

the removal of the authority of revelation does at first seem 
to leave a blank on the subjects of the human condition and 
destiny which no reasoning can fill up. Those who had been 
accustomed to look to the New Testament as their only light, 
see nothing but confusion when it is taken away, and are 
tempted to look at human existence as a waste, of which both 
the beginning and the end are lost in darkness. It was 
natural, however, that in their anxiety to appreciate the 
supposed revelation, men should do injustice to the world and 
nature. When they are compelled to part with the former, 
these gradually resume their claims, and remind them that 
their position here, regarded for itself alone, is replete with 
interest and enjoyment. The return of first one object of 
pleasing thought, and then another, forces upon them the 
conviction of the high privilege of existence ; and the with- 
drawal into obscure remoteness of the future eternal life, 
may even leave them the more free to appreciate the advan- 
tages of their present more limited but more accessible 
sphere. The eye which fails to distinguish heaven falls con- 
tentedly into the more easy contemplation of the beauties of 
earth. A thicker veil being thrown before the incomprehen- 
sible joys of a future state, the mind returns to count over 
more earnestly the blessings within its immediate reach, and 
is surprised at the extent of its almost unheeded riches. It 
perceives that to live is gain. In accustomed occupations, or 
favourite pursuits ; in its relationships and intercourse with 
mankind; in the perpetual novelty arising from the vicissi- 
tudes of national or individual life; in the free admission 
either to behold or take part in the great drama of the world; 
or in the tranquil cultivation of its powers, or exercise of its 
affections — it recognizes abundant and ever-varying stores of 
enjoyment, requiring only its own energy to be immediately 
worked out. The voice of mankind, as well as of books, still 



CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 485 

captivates the attention; the hill and the river still delight 
the eye; solitude soothes, and society interests; and the 
mind, acquiring a keener perception of happiness from its 
review, is startled into the admission, that the heaven which 
it looked forward to in the remote distance is already close 
at hand. 

But this is the language of prosperity. Christianity is 
pre-eminently the religion of adversity ; and what can com- 
pensate the afflicted for the loss of the assurance of those 
mansions where Jesus is preparing a place for them ? Even 
here it may, perhaps, be recognized, that the compensation 
supplied by nature and the mind's own resources had not 
been sufficiently estimated. The list of the pleasures arising 
out of adversity, and of which this alone can awaken the per- 
ception, is large enough to induce us to suspend the wish 
that there should be no gloomy side to the human condition. 
The consciousness of fortitude developed by emergencies, and 
of refinement of character produced by reverses; increased 
opportunities for the interchange of the kindly sympathies ; 
and the enlargement of views proceeding from an acquaint- 
ance with the most diversified aspects of life ; — afford plea- 
sures felt to be so substantial, that few men probably, on 
calm consideration, would consent to have the dark pages of 
their history replaced by the most brilliant ones. 

Yet it must be owned that there are states in which all 
such reasonings are felt to be insipid, and in which the 
human mind feels a deeper want, — that of Christianity, or of 
something equivalent to it. And why may not such a state 
itself bring with it the consoling convictions which itself re- 
quires, and be regarded as nature's silent but powerful argu- 
ment, which she has framed in such a manner that its force 
shall only be understood in proportion as the want of it is 
felt ? The extreme evils to which individuals are exposed, 



486 CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 

during the slow progress of the race towards perfection, form 
too conspicuous a feature in the history of man to be over- 
looked in our review of the final causes of his condition. 
"Why should we not regard these evils, not as unavoidable or 
permitted imperfections, but as ordained * for a direct and 
adequate object, to convey a solemn lesson, and to complete 
the evidence — imperfect if prosperity were the invariable 
human condition — for an existence beyond the grave ? Pro- 
sperity is satisfied with the glaring surface of this world's 
picture, and neglects futurity: adversity leads aside to the 
contemplation of a more hidden scene, and discloses the 
necessity and value of a future state. Christianity itself pro- 
ceeded from a nation in deep adversity ; out of the distresses 
of Israel issued the cry for immortality. May we not regard 
all irremediable earthly afflictions as intended to suggest 
Christianity to each sufferer, and to whisper, that there must 
be a Father in heaven, and mansions of the blessed ? 

It has not unfrequently happened, that the untutored feel- 
ings of mankind have anticipated the results of philosophic 
investigation. Nature has spoken first ; reasoning and science 
have followed slowly with a confirmation of her voice. Men 
had not been long upon the earth before the ideas of a great 
Father of the universe, and of a region of spirits, began to 
develop themselves. In this, as in every case which exhibits 
the progress of truth, rational doctrines have had to force 
their way through a primeval chaos of dark and mis-shapen 
notions; and Christianity exhibits the shape to which the 
workings of the human kind had brought these ideas at a 
certain stage of the world's progress. The extensive attain- 
ments of science in later ages have tended to confirm the 



* The distinction between permitting and ordaining must vanish in the 
case of a Creator both omniscient and omnipotent. 



CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 487 

former great doctrine ; but hitherto philosophical research has 
not fallen upon the avenues which lead to the development of 
the latter. Science and philosophy are, however, yet in their 
infancy, and especially as regards their application to subjects 
supposed to be connected with morality and religion. The 
belief that Revelation has assumed these subjects as her own 
peculiar ground, has hitherto impeded the growth of free 
inquiry upon them amongst nations most competent to the 
task.* Released from this restraint, and having unbounded 
scope to traverse the creation in search of evidence, mankind 
may reach points in moral discovery which at present would 
be at once pronounced visionary. The achievements of 
mechanical and chemical science may be equalled or outdone 
by those of moral and intellectual research ; and a clearer 
confession be forced out of nature concerning the character 
of the Creator, and the ultimate destination of man. In the 
mean time may it not be, that the feelings of the human 

* Whenever any great revolutions in opinion have been in progress, it 
has appeared to many that the ties of morality were being unloosed, and 
that the mental world was falling into the darkest confusion. Such was 
the idea of the heathens whilst Christianity was throwing down their 
venerable ancient deities. Eunapius, a heathen sophist, who wrote in the 
time of the emperor Theodosius I., giving an account of an Egyptian 
philosopher named Antoninus, says, " He foretold to all his disciples that, 
after his death, there would be no temples, but that the magnificent and 
sacred temple of Serapis would be laid in ruinous heaps, and that fabulous 
confusion and unformed darkness would tyrannize over the best parts of the 
earth. All which things time has brought to pass." 

We see at present the incipient upheavings of another of these revolu- 
tions — the subversion of the belief in miraculous revelations, and the 
gradual advance of a system of natural religion, of which we cannot yet 
predict the whole creed, but of which we may already perceive two essen- 
tial features, the recognition of a God, and that of an inherent moral 
nature in man. As the clearing away of the antiquated piles of the old 
law made way for the simpler structure of faith in Christ, so will the release 
from the exclusive authority of written precept enable men to hear more 
distinctly the voice of the moral nature within them. Reformed Judaism 
will be succeeded by reformed Christianity, and each change appear the 
transition to a more perfect law of liberty. 



488 CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 

heart have anticipated the laborious operations of the intel- 
lect, and that Christianity has taken the advance of philosophy 
in ministering to the deepest wants of man ? 

Let not, then, the mind which is compelled to renounce its 
belief in miraculous revelations deem itself bound to throw 
aside, at the same time, all its most cherished associations. 
Its generous emotions and high contemplations may still find 
an occasion for exercise in the review of the interesting inci- 
dents which have for ever consecrated the plains of Palestine ; 
but it may also find pleasure in the thought that, for this 
exercise, no single spot of earth, and no one page of its 
history, furnishes the exclusive theme. Whatever dimness 
may gather from the lapse of time and the obscurity of 
records about the events of a distant age, these capabilities 
of the mind itself remain, and always will remain, in full 
freshness and beauty. Other Jerusalems will excite the 
glow of patriotism, other Bethanies exhibit the affections of 
home, and other minds of benevolence and energy seek to 
hasten the approach of the kingdom of man's perfection. 
Nor can scriptures ever be wanting — the scriptures of the 
physical and of the moral world — the book of the universe. 
Here the page is open, and the language intelligible to all 
men ; no transcribers have been able to interpolate or erase 
its texts; it stands before us in the same genuineness as 
when first written; the simplest understanding can enter 
with delight into criticism upon it; the volume does not 
close, leaving us to thirst for more, but another and another 
epistle still meets the inquisitive eye, each signed with the 
author's own hand, and bearing undoubted characters of 
divine inspiration. Unable at present to comprehend the 
whole, we can still feel the privilege of looking into it at 
pleasure, of knowing a part, and of attempting the opening 
of further leaves. And if, after its highest efforts, the mind 



CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 489 

be compelled to sink down, acknowledging its inability, in 
some parts, to satisfy itself with any clear conclusion, it may 
remain serene at least, persuaded that God will not cause any 
soul to fare the worse for not knowing what he has given it 
no means to know. Enough is understood to enable us to 
see, in the Universe itself, a Son which tells us of a Father, 
and in all the natural beauty and moral excellence which 
meet us in the world an ever-present Logos, which reveals 
the grace and truth of its invisible source. Enough is under- 
stood to convince us that, to have a place on this beautiful 
planet, on almost any terms, is an unspeakable privilege ; 
that virtue produces the highest happiness, whether for this 
or another world; and that there does exist an encircling 
mysterious Intelligence, which, as it appears to manifest its 
energy in arrangements for the general welfare of the crea- 
tion, must ensure a provision for all the real interests of man. 
Erom all our occasional excursions into the abysses of the 
unseen world, and from all our efforts to reach upwards to 
the hidden things of God, both reason and piety bid us 
return tranquilly to our accustomed corner of earth, to use 
and enjoy fully our present lot, and to repose implicitly 
upon the higher wisdom in whose disposal we stand, whilst 
indulging the thought that a time is appointed when the 
cravings of the heart and of the intellect will be satisfied, 
and the enigma of our own and the world's existence be 
solved. 



APPENDIX. 



Page 48. 

Jahn's Biblical Antiquities, translated by Upham, sec. 261, describes the 
process of death under crucifixion, as extracted from a dissertation by Geo. 
Gottlieb Richter, a German physician. 

In addition to the unnatural position of the body, the loss of blood, and 
inflammation of the parts wounded, he says : " On those parts which are 
distended or pressed, more blood flows through the arteries than can be 
carried back into the veins. The consequence is, that a greater quantity 
of blood finds its way from the aorta into the head and stomach, than 
would be carried there by an undisturbed circulation. The blood-vessels of 
the head become pressed and swollen. The impulsion of the blood in more 
than ordinary quantities into the stomach is also unfavourable to life, 
because it is that part of the system which not only admits of the blood 
being stationary, but is peculiarly exposed to mortification. The aorta not 
being at liberty to empty in the usual free and undisturbed way the blood 
which it receives from the left ventricle of the heart, is unable to receive 
its usual quantity. The blood of the lungs, therefore, is unable to find a 
free circulation. This general obstruction extends Its effect also to the right 
ventricle, and the consequence is an internal excitement, exertion, and 
anxiety, which are more intolerable than the anguish of death itself. All 
the large vessels about the heart, and all the veins and arteries in that part 
of the system, on account of the accumulation and pressure of blood, are 
the source of inexpressible misery. The degree of anguish is gradual in 
its increase, and the person crucified is able to live under it, commonly till 
the third, and sometimes till the seventh day." 

C. F. F. Gruner, " de Jesu C. morte vera non Syncoptica, Jena 1800," 
argues that Jesus possessed probably a healthy constitution of body, from 
his habit of living in the open air and of frequent travelling ; but that the 
presentiment of his fate, and the harassing scenes attending his apprehen- 
sion, would have had a depressing effect on his physical strength. " Se- 
quuntur alia graviora vim vitae deprimentia. Addictus cruci, pugnis ac 
palmis contusus, corona spinea cinctus misereque laceratus, nudus et ad 
columnam adstrictus, cseditur ante loris et flagris, ut moris Romani erat. 
Quae cum essent aculeata, taxillata, et ossiculis catenata, et miseri ad necem 



492 APPENDIX. 

usque flagellati ministrorum immanitate* haud raro perierunt, quiu sub 
ipsa deductione stimulisf crudeliter atque petulanter adigerentur, conse- 
quens est, ut Christum fame ac vigiliis lassum, ex vulneribus crebris segrum, 
et a sanguine vacuum, summa teneret debilitas. Auxit sine dubio legalis 
crucis gestatio crudos cutis lacerae dolores, attrivitque ulterius vires, denique 
perfecit malum crux ipsa erecta, cui crudeliter adstrictus et adfixus erat, 
clavis per manus et pedes actis. Hinc vehementissime exacerbati sunt 
dolores et ad omne corpus diffusi, hinc post haemorrhagiam largam loca 
sugillata, inflammata et in gangraenam prona, hinc magna circuitus san- 
guinei turbatio, hinc immensa sanguinis ad pulmones et cor congestio facta, 
eaque, ni omnis fallor, summse anxietatis auctor et effectrix fuit, quam 
clamore magno prodidisse videtur, illico mortuus." He continues to this 
effect, " The things hitherto related, however, do not occasion speedy death, 
for some lived several days ; another cause for the unexpected dissolution 
must be sought, viz. : Syncope, by which the vital power was paralyzed, 
and all life appeared to be extinguished. Syncope not unfrequently 
precedes or brings on real death, unless proper means of recovery are 
adopted. % Christ being placed in a cold and rocky tomb, tending to con- 
geal the blood, would probably have expired rather than revived." 

But the thrust of the spear, if historical, is a more evident and sufficient 
cause of death. " In some parts, and especially if not forcible, it might 
not wound fatally. The soldier, holding his lance in his right hand, would 
probably pierce the left side of Jesus, where the weapon might meet the 
lungs, the pericardium, the heart, and the great artery. On the right side 
the lance might meet the lungs, the vena cava, and the azygoi ; behind, 
the thoracic duct. In any case the blow, if forcible, would in all proba- 
bility inflict death, either immediate or inevitable within a short time." 

"The lungs, if pierced, might have given forth some blood, but not 
water. Most probably the blood came from one of the ventricles of the 
heart; the water from the pericardium." Gruner offers no explanation of 
the difficulty that the blood and water should flow out separately so as to 
be distinguished by a bystander ; a difficulty which others could explain 
only by resorting to a miracle. Strauss has remarked that the quantity of 
liquid from the pericardium, except in dropsical cases, is so small that its 
flow would not strike the eye ; besides, that there is only one small space 
in the forepart of the chest where the pericardium could be struck so that 
its liquid contents should flow outwards ; in all other cases it would spread 
into the interior of the cavity of the chest. He adds, that as the blood does 
not separate into the serum and clot in the body itself, but only some time 



* Ulpiau de Pcenis, 1. iii. Euseb. H. E. iv. 15. Philo in Flaccum. 

f Plaut. Mostellar. Act i. Sc. i., v. 52—54. 

% Eschenbach says that in syncope the blood is still flowing, but more 
slowly ; that true stories of revivals from this state usually place them 
within one or two days ; and that cases of three days or a week rest on no 
good authority. 



APPENDIX. 493 

after being drawn from it, the writer may have added this incident of the 
issue of blood and water with a view to prove that Jesus was really dead, a 
proof however resting only on his own misconception of the medical fact. 

The vehement asseveration which follows, (" And he that saw it, bare 
record, and his record is true ; and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye 
might believe," ver. 35) Strauss considers to apply to this issue of blood 
and water, which was indeed the last circumstance mentioned. Yet it is 
possible that this solemn testimony was intended to apply to the whole scene 
just related, viz. : that the legs of the thieves were broken, but Jesus him- 
self pierced with a spear ; for these two are evidently the points which 
conduce to the writer's object, to make his readers "believe," being, as he 
pretends to discover, the fulfilment of the Scriptures. The flow of blood 
and water is not necessary for this purpose, and therefore would not require 
so much stress to be laid upon it ; although it is true that he might have 
introduced this embellishment from the erroneous idea alluded to. 

I hesitate to admit that the whole scene was invented in order to fulfil 
these two texts, because — lstly; They are unconnected sentences from re- 
mote parts of Scripture, and, although there is some evidence that the latter 
had been applied by the Rabbins to the Messiah, it was unnatural to think 
of framing a story so as to bring together the fulfilment of both ; whereas 
the incidents being historical, it was natural to collect applicable texts 
wherever they could be found. 2ndly; The circumstances have strong 
inherent probability ; for it being necessary to remove the bodies, the soldiers 
must be sent to despatch the criminals ; and if the lifeless appearance of 
Jesus caused them to pause for a moment, nothing could be more natural 
than for one of these Roman soldiers speedily to make the case sure by 
means of the spear which he held. 

Supposing for a moment that, after all, life was not extinct in Jesus, it is 
reasonable to believe that he would have required at least equal medical 
care with the friend of Josephus, whose recovery was by no means easy. 
He would not have been able to walk about the country after two days, as 
the subsequent legends represent. Consequently none of these legends 
coincide in any manner with the hypothesis that he still lived. None of 
them represent him as giving his parting directions in a posture or situation 
which we can reconcile with the idea of an extremely debilitated frame. 

Page 114. 

A passage in Macrobius has been sometimes cited in support of Mat- 
thew's story of the children. Among the jests cf Augustus, is the follow- 
ing : " When he heard that among the children within two years of age 
which Herod king of the Jews commanded to be slain in Syria, his own son 
had been killed, he said, * It is better to be Herod's hog than his son.' " 

Macrobius wrote about A. D. 400, when the Gospel of Matthew was 
generally known throughout the empire ; and if he did write these words, 
from what other source is it likely that he could have borrowed them ? 

But the passage bears the strongest marks of forgery. Macrobius was 



494 APPENDIX. 

in all probability a Heathen ; and why should he go out of his way to give 
such a careful confirmation to one of Matthew's most questionable passages ? 
No Heathen or Christian writer has stated that Herod killed a son under 
two years of age. Alexander, Aristobulus, and Antipater, whom he caused 
to be put to death, were all young men. The saying of Augustus would 
therefore be equally witty, and more true, without any allusion to the 
infants of Bethlehem. 

As the transcribers of the empire became Christian, we can imagine the 
temptation they must have felt to render such an easy but essential service 
to their new faith, as the manufacturing of Heathen and Jewish testi- 
monies. Macrobius was likely to receive the same treatment as Josephus. 

Voltaire says (Philos. torn, iv.), but without naming his authority, that 
the ancient copies of Macrobius had not the clause in question. 

Page 146. 
The length to which this volume has extended prevents the insertion of 
the whole of the notes on which the assertions respecting the Gospels of 

Mark and Luke are grounded ; but the following will explain the method 
of examination adopted. 

Xotes on the comparison of Matthew with Mark. 

No. 1. That one borrowed from the other. 

2. That Mark borrowed from Matthew, rather than the converse. 

3. That Matthew borrowed from Mark, rather than the converse. 

4. Apparent arbitrary alterations by Mark. 

5. Amplifications, or exaggerations, upon Matthew's text. 

6. Independent information of Mark. 

7. Passages which appear to be omitted by Mark, rather than added by 

Matthew in the use by the one of the other's gospel. 

8. That Mark used a Hebrew copy of Matthew. 

9. That he used the present Greek copy. 



In the accounts of John the Baptist, Mark's appears to be that of one 
who had read or heard Matthew's often enough to be well acquainted 
with it, although he could not repeat the whole verbatim. Hence 
most of the verses in Mark agree with separate ones in Matthew, 
although in a different order. 

No. 2. The only thing additional in Mark is a quotation from Malachi, 
" Behold, I send my messenger," &c. It is very likely that Mark 
having heard this prophecy applied to John elsewhere, should 
think it worth while to add it to the one from Isaiah quoted by 
Matthew. But it is unlikely that Matthew, who was so intent 
upon the prophecies, should omit this, if he found it ready prepared 
for him. 



APPENDIX. 495 

No. 2, 7. Mark omits the reproof of the Pharisees and Sadducees, " O gene- 
ration of vipers." Throughout his Gospel he appears to dislike copy- 
ing long discourses, and this reproof of two Jewish sects would seem 
to him the part least interesting to his own readers. He passes on to 
the most important part, the promise of the one mightier. 

If Matthew had heen copying from Mark, he would probably 
have also put this important part first, and the reproof would have 
followed or stood isolated ; but it not only comes first, but coheres 
well with the parts before, ver. 6, and after, verses 11, 12. The 
more important thus grows out of the less important. To inter- 
weave the reproof in this apparently original manner upon Mark's 
narrative, implies more art than it is reasonable to attribute to 
Matthew, who could have no motive for taking so much pains 
here ; whereas Mark's account is a very natural abridgment of 
Matthew's, 

7. Mark omits the addition to the baptism with the Holy Ghost, " and 
with fire;" also the threat of unquenchable fire. In Matthew they 
form an easy continuation of ver. 10. 

7. The dialogue between Jesus and John, in which the former says, 
" Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness," is not in Mark, 
whose motive for omitting it might have been an unwillingness to 
lay so much stress upon baptism before his Gentile readers. 
2, 7. In the temptation, the discourses with the devil are omitted by 
Mark ; but as he begins and ends with nearly the same phrases as 
Matthew, his account seems to be merely an abridgment of the 
latter. The only thing added by Mark is, "he was with the wild 
beasts," which might be merely an idea suggested by Matthew's 
word, " wilderness." 

8? Mark calls the devil " Satan," instead of 5iafio\os, the word in Mat- 
thew. Still as the word Satan does occur in Matthew's dialogue, 
the instance is not of much force. The term Satan was no doubt as 
familiar to the Greek Christians as it is to us. 

5. Mark i. 14, 15 ; his own paraphrase of Matt. iv. 12, 17, " Repent ye, 
and believe the Gospel," is more suitable to Mark's own time, than 
to the beginning of Jesus 's preaching. 
1, 9. Mark i. 16—20. 

5. Ibid. 19, 20 : Going " a little further thence," and leaving Zebedee 
" with the hired servants," are very natural additions to Matthew. 
It might have occurred to Mark that Matthew's statement, " they 
left the ship and their father," sounded harshly. 

7. Mark passes over the' sermon on the Mount, but adopts Matthew's 
closing sentence, " They were astonished at his doctrine ; for he 
taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." This 
agrees with his usual disinclination to copy long discourses. He 
speaks of this teaching as being in the synagogue of Capernaum, 
instead of on a mountain ; but as Matthew had previously mentioned 
Capernaum as Jesus's residence, iv. 13, this slight discrepancy 



496 APPENDIX. 

might arise from a negligent way of epitomizing rather than from 
independent information. 
No. 5. Marki. 23 — 28, a story of casting out an unclean spirit, not in Mat- 
thew, but apparently suggested by Matt. iv. 24, " He healed those 
which were possessed with devils." For Mark's verse 28, compared 
with Matt. iv. 23, 25, renders it probable that he had this part of 
Matthew before him, or in his remembrance. The story expresses 
rather the general notions of the church concerning the power of 
Jesus over unclean spirits, than circumstances which indicate reality. 
There must have been many such stories current, and Mark seems 
here to relate one in order to give the general character of the cures 
mentioned by Matthew. 

From this place to Matt. xiv. 1, Mark's order disagrees frequently 
with Matthew's, although separate parts and stories agree closely. 
This may be accounted for thus ; many of Matthew's stories were 
generally known to the church from tradition, and consequently to 
Mark, who had besides the advantage of having heard Peter. At 
first, therefore, he did not intend to be a mere abridger of Matthew, 
but introduced the stories as he remembered them, or as seemed to 
him best, turning to Matthew only to help him out with the details 
of each. By this means he accustomed himself to depend upon 
Matthew, and, by the time he arrived at his sixth chapter, he found 
it the easiest plan to paraphrase or even copy him continuously ; 
for Matthew's was a very full collection, and contained ready for 
use nearly all that he himself could say. But he still omitted or 
added in some places. 

6. Mark i. 29. In the cure of Peter's mother-in-law, he mentions the 
house as that of Simon and Andrew, and that James and John were 
there, which has the appearance of independent information. But 
ver. 30, 31, 32, show so plainly his disposition to amplify, that it 
may be doubted whether Matthew's expression, " ministered unto 
them," did not suggest to him the propriety of naming the company, 
which he was able to do by conjecture from ver. 16, 19. Mark 
frequently appears anxious to fill up minute particulars, which most 
writers leave unnoticed, or to be imagined. 

2, 7. He omits Matt. viii. 17, viz. the strange application of Isaiah 
liii. 4, to the cures of healing. Since Mark did not object to quote 
prophecy when there was an appearance of applicability, as in 
the case of John the Baptist, it seems probable that he omitted the 
above and many others quoted by Matthew, from his perception of 
the absurdity of bringing them forward as prophecies. 

6. Mark i. 34. " Not suffering the devils to speak, because they knew 
him," is an idea not found in Matthew. It is repeated by Mark 
very forcibly, iii. 11, 12, and therefore seems more than an amplifi- 
cation made in the warmth of writing. It was probably a tradition 
current at Rome, the origin of which was this : The disciples ob- 
served, in these cases of cures, that the devils themselves generally 



APPENDIX. 497 

did not speak, which they might have been expected to do by way 
of complaint or protest on their ejection ; they therefore supposed 
that Jesus prohibited them from speaking for the reason stated. 
The fact, that the devils did not speak, is one of those additional 
particulars which Mark, owing probably to his acquaintance with 
Peter, was able to supply. 
No. 6. i. 35 — 38. Gathered from Peter's conversation. 
1, 5. i. 40—45. 

6. ii. 3. Because it was not worth while to add, " which was borne 
of four," for the mere sake of improving Matthew's account; and 
the latter suggests nothing concerning the number of bearers, which 
might have been two or three. 

5. ii. 4. This breaking up of the roof is a strange incident. There 
appears throughout such an evident disposition on the part of Mark 
to render his story striking, that we may be allowed to conjecture 
that he ventured on this bold amplification merely for the sake of 
illustrating Matt. ver. 2, " Jesus seeing their faith." The omission 
by Matthew of such an incident, whilst noticing the faith of the 
bearers, would be remarkable." 

1. ii. 5 — 22. The frame-work of the narrative agrees closely with 
Matthew : but ver. 13, 23, seem to show that Mark had heard of 
these events in a different order from Matthew. 

4 or 6. In the story of the ears of corn, Mark adds, " In the days of 
Abiathar the high priest." Ver. 27, 28, also do not arise out of 
Matthew's account. The variations seem greater than would have 
been made by one merely paraphrasing Matthew. 

1,5. In the cure of the withered hand, the whole of Mark's account 
either agrees with or might have been suggested by Matthew's. 
He omits the comparison to the sheep in the pit, but enlarges in 
the other part. The wording of the cure, ver. 5, could not have 
agreed so closely from accident. 

I, 5. iii. 6. Mark adds, " with the Herodians." He might have known 
from Matt. xxii. 16, that they were leagued with the Pharisees 
against Jesus. 

Mark here, as is common for one writer using another, falls con- 
tinually into Matthew's turn of narration and expressions. E&Adovres 
is a trifling particular ; tear* avrov is unnecessary to the sense ; dirws 
ovtov aitoKsaaxri, " how they might destroy him," is one out of an 
immense variety of phrases which might have been employed in so 
copious a language as the Greek : the same may be said of av^ovKtov ; 
yet all these expressions are in both. 

2. Matthew's construction is the harder in this verse. 

5. iii. 7, 8. An exaggeration on Matt. xii. 15. How could Mark 
have known so precisely from what provinces the multitudes came ? 
Matthew merely gives an obvious fact, that multitudes followed 
him. 

6. iii. 21. This is not suggested by any expression in Matthew, nor is 

2 K 



498 APPENDIX. 

it likely that Mark would have imagined a speech apparently so 
derogatory to Jesus. 
No. 7. iii. 27, 28. Here the part omitted by Mark is the most unintel- 
ligible verse in Matthew's narrative, xii. 30. It is very improbable 
that any one, borrowing from Mark, could have inserted this verse. 

Page 338. 

From other sources besides Matthew, it appears to have been a current 
notion amongst the Jews that the Messiah was to come from Bethlehem. 
The Targum on Micah v. 1, reads, " From thee shall go forth before me 
Messias, to rule over Israel." The same text is cited in Pirke R. Eliezer, 
as relating to the Messiah. In the Mishna, Berachoth, 5, 1, there is a 
story about the birth of the Messiah, who is said to be Menahem, son of 
Hezekiah, born at Bethlehem. — See Schoettgen and Lightfoot. 

If Jesus were really born at Bethlehem, the coincidence would be at 
least remarkable. But this fact rests only on the two accounts of Matthew 
and Luke, against which there are some strong objections. 

In Matthew the birth at Bethlehem is part of the same story which 
contains the slaughter of the infants, the appearance of the star, and other 
most improbable circumstances. Moreover, he does not explain the occa- 
sion of Joseph's being so far from his usual dwelling-place, Nazareth. 

Luke says that Joseph came up to Bethlehem to be taxed. Now, Jose- 
phus says that Cyrenius came into Judea " to take an account of the 
people's substance or estates," and he calls this a taxation ; but he gives 
no intimation that the Jews were all required to go into their own cities. 
Such a wanton disturbance of the nation was very unlikely to be insisted on, 
when the purpose might be answered as well by a declaration given to the 
Roman officer. 

Besides, if we admit the truth of Luke's subsequent statement, that 
Jesus was about thirty years old in the 15th year of Tiberius, he could 
not be born at the time of the taxing, but was then about eight years old ; 
for, according to Josephus, the taxings were made 37 years after the battle 
of Actium, from which date it is agreed that Augustus reigned 44 years. 
Count, therefore, 30 years from the 15th of his successor Tiberius, and we 
find that Jesus must have been born 8 years before the taxing. 

We can calculate the same thing another way. Herod died A.U.C. 750, 
or 751. Archelaus held the government ten years, according to Josephus, 
and it was only after his removal that Cyrenius came into Judea ; the 
taxing, therefore, must have been in A.U.C. 760, or later. The 15th 
Tiberius falls in with A.U.C. 782. Deduct from this 30 years, and we 
have the 8th year before the taxing for the date of the birth of Jesus. 

Unless, therefore, we suppose that Jesus was only 22 years old, or less, 
when Luke says he was about 30, Luke contradicts not only Matthew, but 
himself, in the circumstances which he connects with the birth at Beth- 
lehem. 

The eagerness of the early chinch to prove that Jesus fulfilled the pro- 
phecies relative to the Messiah being considered, it is probable, then, 



APPENDIX. 499 

that the stories of his birth at Bethlehem were invented in order to meet 
an early objection of the Jews, alluded to John vii. 42 : " Hath not the 
Scripture said, that Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the 
town of Bethlehem, where David was?" 

Pages 413—425. 

u Jesus a revolutionist." — It may appear that in what has been said on this 
subject, there is a want of clearness in explaining what were the views of 
Jesus respecting the Roman power. The difficulty on this head is probably 
increased to modern readers from their having a more clear and impressive 
idea of that power than was held by the mass of the Jewish populace. The 
modern reader of history connects at once the idea of overwhelming mili- 
tary strength with the Roman name. But this was not so fully the case 
with each people, as they successively underwent the process of subjugation. 
The event alone could fully convince them that the Romans were irresis- 
tible. The Jewish populace especially, from their blindness to what passed 
in the rest of the world, were likely to fall short in their estimate of Roman 
strength. A few legions and garrisons, better armed and disciplined than 
themselves, were all that appeared visibly before them ; and why should 
not these be expelled by a whole nation ? The geography and statistics 
of the lower Jews were not sufficient to enable them to appreciate the colos- 
sal power by which those few legions would sooner or later be supported. 
An Agrippa was seldom at hand to give them a minute detail of Roman 
conquests. The inertness of their own rulers, high priests, scribes and Pha- 
risees, chiefly excited their indignation. 

Yet it must be admitted that the legions of the procurator formed an ob- 
stacle too prominent to be overlooked by any Jew who desired the national 
deliverance ; and if Jesus ever allowed himself to dwell upon the means 
by which that deliverance was to be effected, the mode of expulsion of those 
legions must have frequently been a subject of thought. Allowing that he 
hoped for supernatural assistance, did he rely upon it to such an extent as 
to render all efforts of the Jewish population superfluous, or did he expect 
it only as an impulse to a gallant and successful insurrection like that of Judas 
Maccabseus ? 

It is difficult to form a precise opinion on this point, because 
Firstly : It is probable that Jesus never did clearly define, even in his 
own mind, the precise nature of the means by which the kingdom was to be 
introduced. A cool Jewish politician or warrior would have immediately 
seen that the first and most important business was to get rid of the Roman 
incubus ; from such an individual we should justly look for copious indica- 
tions of his intentions in this respect. But these features, as we have seen, 
were but in a small degree ingredients in the character of Jesus. His dis- 
position inclined him rather to be the teacher and prophet of his nation, and 
to invoke the arm of the Lord, than to organize arms of flesh. The Scrip- 
tures taught that the God of Israel was omnipotent, and that whenever his 
people's sufferings and repentance had arrived at the predetermined degree, 

2 k 2 



500 APPENDIX. 

he had specially interfered to deliver them. Pilate could no more resist 
Jehovah than could Pharaoh, Chushan-rishathaim, or Sennacherib. To 
persuade their God to stretch forth his arm was the shortest Avay to deliver- 
ance. Repentance and prayer of the whole nation were the most direct 
and effectual means of attaining freedom. The nation's hardness of heart 
was the main difficulty ; the Roman power a secondary one. Making full 
allowance for this strong peculiarity in Jewish thought at the time of Christ, 
(and few readers of the New Testament probably allow for it sufficiently,) 
it does not appear inconsistent with that degree of intellect and mental 
acuteness which appears in the conduct of Jesus in many parts of his story, 
that he should have embarked in a career involving his own fate and that 
of his followers, without a careful consideration of that which, to ordinary 
and modern calculation, would form the most essential matter to be provided 
for. 

Secondly : Admitting that Jesus might have thought over at times the 
means by which his Father would choose to expel the Romans, he never 
arrived at such a point as to require the public manifestation of his thoughts. 
Considered politically, he failed at the outset. The first part of the plan 
must be to call the whole nation to repentance, and to obtain some demon- 
stration or promise of adherence to himself; when the whole nation should 
appear in the requisite temper in these respects, it would be time enough 
to announce what further steps were necessary to restore the throne of 
David. But he found himself unsupported except by hungry multitudes ; 
the preliminary preaching of preparation alone, in an extensive and orga- 
nized manner, brought upon him disgrace and proscription from the Jewish 
authorities. His thoughts then, whatever they were, respecting the ulterior 
object of expelling the Romans, remained chiefly in his own breast; and it 
is almost out of the province of reasonable criticism to attempt to define 
them accurately. 

Looking however at the indications which we can gather from his dis- 
courses and acts, I am inclined to conjecture that there was some fluctua- 
tion in his thoughts upon this point, according to the different circumstances 
in which he was placed ; that he did not set out with the intention of form- 
ing the Jewish population into armies, and of occupying the towns as a mi- 
litary leader ; he trusted that the faith which could remove a mountain into 
the sea, would supersede the necessity for military tactics ; but that when 
he found superhuman aid wanting, he would gladly have availed himself of 
a general armed rising of the nation, and occasionally even gave some ob- 
scure hints that this might be necessary to attain the Kingdom of God. 

Let us go through the four Evangelists to collect all traces of information 
on this point : 

Matthew x. 32. " Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him 
will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. 33. But whoso- 
ever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which 
is in heaven. 34. Think not that I came to send peace on earth : I came 
not to send peace, but a sword. 35. For I am come to set a man at vari- 
ance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the 



APPENDIX. 501 

daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36. And a man's foes shall be 
they of his own household. 37. He that loveth father or mother more than 
me is not worthy of me. 38. And he that taketh not his cross and folio w- 
eth after me, is not worthy of me. 36. He that findeth his life shall lose 
it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." 

The discourse from which this passage is taken evidently contains a large 
mixture of matter applicable to the history of the church after the death of 
Jesus till the writer's own time, viz. the allusion to the distresses which the 
followers of Christ should undergo, in terms pointing apparently beyond the 
earlier annoyance from Jewish authorities, to the persecution by Nero ; also 
the expectation of an approaching end bringing salvation to the followers of 
Christ, and of the coming of the Son of Man, — which notions we have seen 
reason to consider most prevalent among the Jewish Christians about the 
time of the siege. It is therefore reasonable to suppose that this long dis- 
course in Matthew presents us with some original sayings of Jesus liberally 
intermingled with more recent views. But some parts bear a strong cha- 
racter of genuineness ; for instance, ver. 5 — 15 ; and ought we to attribute 
the same character to the passage under consideration ? This must be 
determined mainly by weighing its intrinsic applicability to the different 
periods. 

Ver. 32, 33, — more applicable to the later period ; because it was then 
reckoned by the church the prime merit of a Christian to confess Jesus be- 
fore men, that is, to proclaim him the Messiah, at the risk of martyrdom ; 
but at the time when Jesus gave his charge to the apostles, and even during 
the greater part of his life, it was the very thing he was most anxious they 
should not do. A few chapters further on, we find Matthew himself stating 
that "he commanded them to tell no man that he was the Christ." As the 
whole stands, the disciples are first promised eternal rewards if they will do 
what they are shortly afterwards strictly enjoined not to do. Nor can it be 
said that Jesus is here carrying his views forward into futurity, for no such 
transition is marked : he begins evidently with directions for their immediate 
conduct ; and if he had really spoken the whole chapter as it stands, the . 
disciples could not have been expected to distinguish one kind of directions 
from the other, and after hearing from verse 5 to 33 continuously, they 
certainly could not have been justly blamed if they had committed the im- 
portant mistake of confessing to all Judea that Jesus was the Christ. The 
omission to mark the transition would thus have been a grievous error on 
the part of Jesus, but on the part of the writer 40 years later, it was com- 
paratively unimportant, and agrees with his ascertained carelessness. It is 
true that the inconsistency would be avoided by attributing another sense 
to the term " confession ;" one consistent with the actual position of Jesus, 
viz. a confession that he was a greater prophet than John ; but from his 
cautious conduct at that time with respect to the authorities, it seems very 
doubtful whether he would have desired even this : and considering the 
verses in reference to the continuous exhortation from ver. 16, with which the 
word " therefore " appears intended to connect them, it is more natural to 
consider that the confession of Jesus, on which so much stress is laid, — the 



502 APPENDIX. 

confession to be given " before governors and kings, for a testimony against 
them and the Gentiles" — is the confession of his most exalted character. 

Ver. 34 does not link itself with the preceding, but appears rather to 
begin a distinct subject. The whole from 34 to 39 undoubtedly expresses 
very well and powerfully the necessity of preparation even for civil warfare 
in the cause undertaken — an exhortation to conquer or die, and a promise 
of eternal reward to those who fall. If it had proceeded from Mahomet, 
no one would hesitate to attribute this character to it ; we should say per- 
haps that this passage described very aptly the views of the Arabian warrior- 
prophet. The uniformly pacific disposition of Jesus throughout his career 
is not so indisputably established as to lead us to banish without examina- 
tion such an explanation of the passage regarded as proceeding from him. 
If really uttered by him, in substance at least, during his circuit through 
Galilee, whilst he was inducing multitudes to leave their occupations and 
follow him, it is difficult to avoid an interpretation of this kind. Certainly 
his Galilean hearers would have required a very careful and explicit com- 
mentary to preserve them from it. For the Galileans were notoriously im- 
patient of the Roman yoke ; from the time of Judas the Gaulonite they had 
been most prone to insurrection, and preserved this reputation till the ex- 
tinction of the Jewish state. The brave defenders of the Galilean towns 
against Vespasian would probably have considered the language of Jesus as 
that of a man worthy to lead them ; and his actual hearers partook suffi- 
ciently of their temper to be inclined to consider it as a significant hint. 
It is complimenting the peaceful intent of Jesus at the expense of his un- 
derstanding, to suppose that he threw fire-brands upon inflammable matter, 
without at all intending to raise a conflagration. 

The passage, however, expresses rather the melancholy desperation of 
one forced into a course to which he would be naturally averse, than the 
ready ardour of a military spirit. 

This verse (34) is not linked with the preceding either by the ex- 
pression or the sense ; and does not appear very applicable to the later 
period. The dissensions which had torn Judea for some time before Mat- 
thew wrote, were not caused by Jesus. He was so far from sending the 
sword, either of the Romans, or of the Jewish zealots, that there are good 
grounds for believing that his followers were at that period among the more 
peaceably inclined. A writer of the sect would not have volunteered a text 
apparently so contradictory to the spiritual character which then began to 
be the more prevalent attribute of Christ's kingdom. 

It is true that at the time referred to, the Christian church very gene- 
rally expected an approaching end of all existing kingdoms, and the 
appearance of the Lord to avenge his saints. But the verse does not 
express this with any thing approaching the significance which would pro- 
bably have been infused into it by one intending to indicate such an extra- 
ordinary kind of interposition. The terms "peace" and a "sword," both in 
themselves, and in connexion with the following verses, seem most ob- 
viously to signify ordinary peace, and common civil warfare. 

On the other hand, considered as spoken by Jesus at some part of the 






APPENDIX. 503 

time when he was endeavouring to rouse the towns of Galilee to prepara- 
tion for the kingdom, the verse has a very intelligible sense. It had been 
said of the Messiah, that he was to bring peace and plenty to Israel ; their 
progress hitherto had shown that this was not to be attained without a pre- 
liminary struggle ; the disciples must not lull themselves with the hope of 
an easy acquisition of the blessings of the Christ's reign, but must be pre- 
pared even for civil warfare in order to attain it. 

Ver. 35, 36, by themselves, might apply very well to religious family 
dissensions, which the progress of a new sect must often occasion. But 
they also apply to a state of civil warfare, and as they are connected with 
the preceding verse, the sense given to it must determine the sense of these 
also. Some members of the family of Jesus himself rejected him. From 
Matt. xix. 29, Luke ix. 61, which bear a strong character of genuineness, 
it is undeniable that the attempt to follow Jesus occasioned many of his 
disciples to be rejected by their kindred. The strong similarity of all these 
passages contributes to identify a common source, viz. Jesus himself; and 
thus ver. 34 would become the exponent of these two following ones. 

It is true that ver. 21 much resembles 35, but it occurs in the midst of 
the description of the subsequent persecutions, and the term " delivering 
up " increases its applicability to those times. 

Ver. 37 might apply to either time, but yet much better to that of Jesus. 
The profession of his religion in after times did not so necessarily imply the 
forsaking of kindred, as the following himself in person. Paul was favour- 
able to the continued union of believers and unbelievers of the same family. 
1 Cor. vii. 16. 

Ver. 38, 39, in the main, apply better to the time of Jesus : for they 
imply the necessity of immediate action, and imminent dangerous enter- 
prize, rather than that passive firmness which is most appropriate to an 
obnoxious religious sect. The phrase "taketh not his cross" may be the 
writer's own form of expressing the risk which Jesus was announcing, and 
may thus include some modification from his own knowledge of the event ; 
yet there is not an insuperable objection to considering them as literally 
genuine, since crucifixion was known to be the common fate of persons 
unsuccessful in attempting innovations. 

In Mark there is nothing corresponding to ver. 34 of Matthew. We 
have seen that Mark in many instances omits sayings which, although 
bearing strongly the character of authenticity, had become unsuitable to 
his time and readers. 

In Luke we find it so far modified, and in such a different connexion, as 
to lead us to think that he does not here borrow from Matthew, but records 
it as he obtained it from some one of the other sources which supplied him 
with materials. 

Luke xii. 49, " I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I if it 
be already kindled? 50. But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and 
how am I straitened until it be accomplished! 51. Suppose ye that I am 



504 APPENDIX. 

come to give peace on earth ? I tell you, nay ; but rather division. 52. For 
from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against 
two, and two against three. 53. The father shall be divided against the 
son, &c." 

These verses have the appearance of one of those collections of frag- 
mentary sayings, which Luke places together merely in consequence of 
some imaginary association. Ver. 49 appears to be the relic, possibly a 
corrupted one, of some saying resembling ver. 34 Matt. ; but when Luke 
wrote, the original meaning was probably lost in the Gentile churches, 
and consequently he inserts it without having himself a clear perception of 
its sense. By itself, it would perhaps appear too obscure to found any 
reasoning upon; but since Luke places it so near to ver. 51, plainly the 
parallel of Matt. 34, we have some ground for taking this latter to illustrate 
it. The two places then agree very well. To send fire on the earth is a 
very appropriate description of the introduction of civil warfare : n 6e\w et 
7]dr] av7]<pd7i appears to express regret and desperation ; the original saying, 
might have signified, " What course must now be pursued, if the preaching 
throughout Galilee have already kindled an insurrection, and compromised 
us irretrievably with the earthly powers ? Shall I, who had hitherto relied 
on divine aid, now attempt to avail myself of this earthly means alone ? " 

It is not likely that the church should have gratuitously invented a saying 
so much at variance with the peaceful and spiritual character which be- 
longed to it in subsequent times. Also et 7j5rj expresses something expected 
by the speaker to happen or to have happened in his own time. These are 
additional reasons for regarding the saying as coming, in substance, from 
Jesus himself; and as such, it hardly appears susceptible of any other sense 
than the one referred to. His moral teaching and his sayings in general, 
when uninfluenced by some pressing emergency, are in favour of peace and 
good-will. It would be extravagant to attribute to Jesus the detestable 
design of infusing into men in general a spirit of dissension. But reasons 
have been shown for supposing that he aimed at attaining the throne of 
Israel, and delivering his country, to which end a temporary "fire" or 
" sword" might, against his will, be found to be the only means. 

Thus Luke not only confirms the remarkable verse in Matthew, but 
places near it another, apparently independent, but, as far as we can under- 
stand it, agreeing with it in sense. 

Ver. 50, it is true, has no connexion with the preceding one, interpreted 
in this manner ; but does not Luke's general method of compilation autho- 
rize the conjecture that he judged this a fit place for inserting this second 
fragmentary verse, merely because the " fire sent on earth" appeared to him 
a parallel idea to the "baptism of fire" instead of water, which Jesus was 
said to bring, and consequently as naturally suggesting any remarkable 
saying of Jesus respecting his baptism? 

The entrance into Jerusalem approaches very nearly to actual revolt. 
Since Jesus appears to encourage the multitude as far as lies in his power, 
we must conclude, that if this movement did not terminate in armed insur- 



APPENDIX. 505 

rection, it was owing only to the prompt vigilance of the chief priests and 
Pharisees. These authorities are keenly reproached by Jesus himself, and 
the people threatened with the loss of the kingdom of God on account of 
their rejecti n of him. 

Matt, xxiii. 13 : " Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites : for 
ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men ; for ye neither go in your- 
selves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in." A political sense 
is here the most clear and intelligible. The saying is placed soon after the 
account of the repression, by the Pharisees, of the incipient insurrection, 
and thus appears to mean, " Ye Pharisees will neither aid yourselves in 
that national deliverance, the introduction to the kingdom of heaven, of 
which I come to bring- the signal, nor allow free course to the efforts of 
these truer sons of Israel, whom my voice had begun to rouse." That the 
Pharisees hindered men's souls from reaching the eternal happy state, in 
consequence of the false doctrines taught by them, is too strained and figu- 
rative an interpretation to be admitted without strong support from the 
context, corresponding passages, or connected events. The expression is 
not "heaven," but the ' kingdom of heaven," i.e. indisputably " the king- 
dom of the Messiah;" and how did the Pharisees in fact hinder men from 
entering into it? Most obviously, by their conduct just related, their sup- 
pression of the popular enthusiasm, and determined maintenance of the 
actual state of things. 

When Jesus is apprehended, the disciples appear disposed to defend him 
by force : but he represses the attempt; " Put up again thy sword into its 
place: for all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword." This 
disclaimer, however of the use of military weapons at that moment, when 
it could only involve the disciples in his own fate, by no means proves that 
he would have held the same language on all other occasions. The moment 
for effective resistance was then past ; the attempt must evidently accelerate 
his own fate, and sacrifice them. 

In the parables of Jesus, kings and armies are not unfrequently intro- 
duced, and sometimes in such a manner as to sanction rather than condemn 
their ordinai-y employments. Matt. xxii. 7 ; Luke xiv. 31 ; xix. 27. If he 
represented the righteous and triumphant king as slaying his enemies, we 
can hardly suppose that he would have disapproved of the slaying of some 
Romans and recusant Jews, in order to attain the triumph. 

These indications are, I think, sufficient to authorize the conjecture, that 
although Jesus intended at first, and entertained most ardently the desire, 
to be the leader of the people to general righteousness and repentance, 
trusting to the divine arm for deliverance ; — yet the position into which 
after some time he found himself drawn by his undertaking, led him to 
desire earnestly the aid of his countrymen in any way by which it could be 
rendered effective. 

Yet admitting, in its fullest extent, the semi-bellicose aspect which this 
view affixes to Jesus, we are not thereby compelled to withdraw the epithets 
of wise or virtuous, which we might have felt disposed to attribute to him 
in reference to his predominant character of moral teacher. That he enter- 

9 T 



506 APPENDIX. 

tained the idea of freeing his country from a hateful foreign yoke, when 
other means failed, by exciting to a gallant and unanimous resistance, 
would probably raise him in most eyes more than a demeanour invariably 
answering to the description "the meek and lowly Jesus." 



THE END. 



TRINIED BY RICHARD XINDEE, GREEN ARBOUR COUR3 1 , OLE BAILSY. 



In boards, 8vo. pp. 86. 

CHRISTIAN THEISM, 

BY THE AUTHOR OP 
" AN INQUIRY CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY." 

T. ALLMAN, 42, HOLBORN HILL. 

" The following are some reflections on the direction which the religious 
sentiments of men may be expected to take after the relinquishment of 
their belief in miraculous revelations. On some occasions old truths have 
an interest and fitness of application which give them a freshness equal to 
that of novelty. ... To those who have felt compelled to acquiesce in the 
conclusion referred to with respect to the Christian religion, the truths 
which can be gathered from Nature come to have a force and reality which 
were never before perceived. When we are called upon to decide between 
Nature's religion and none, it seems to us as if we had not yet sufficiently 
weighed the import of the lessons conveyed in Creation, and we find in 
them the interest and value belonging to new discoveries." — Preface. 






*%6&*7 «^>^ /C_ ZS&& 



CHRISTIAN THEISM. 



THE AUTHOR OF "AN INQUIRY CONCERNING 
THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY." 



LONDON : 



T. ALLMAN, 42, HOLBORN HILL; 
JOHN CHAPMAN, 121, NEWGATE STREET. 



1845. 



PREFACE. 



The following are some reflections on the direction 
which the religious sentiments of men may he expected 
to take after the relinquishment of their belief in mira- 
culous revelations. 

On some occasions old truths have an interest and 
fitness of application which give them a freshness equal 
to that of novelty. This must be the excuse for repeat- 
ing here some things which may have often been said 
before. To those who have felt compelled to acquiesce 
in the conclusion referred to with respect to the Christian 
religion, the truths which can be gathered from Nature 
come to have a force and a reality which were never 
before perceived. When we are called upon to decide 
between Nature's religion and none, it seems to us as 
if we had not yet sufficiently weighed the import of the 
lessons conveyed in Creation, and we find in them the 
interest and value belonging to new discoveries. 

These pages may, perhaps, express some of the thoughts 
to which such a position gives rise ; and also tend to shew 
in what sense 1 .oism and Christianity may unite in name 
as well as in sympathies. # 

September 1839. 






ERRATUM. 

Page 2, line 1, for "other causes than those'' read "those causes alone." 






CHRISTIAN THEISM. 



Miracle and prophecy are losing their influence over 
the minds of men ; they are no longer put forward as the 
impregnable bulwarks of religion, but are withdrawn to a 
more secure place in the background. Their strength 
as armour is mistrusted; and they are preserved with 
the jealous care due to venerated but fragile relics. 
The tone of confident appeal to the supposed unimpeach- 
able evidence on their behalf, is succeeded by an implor- 
ing deprecation of the rashness which should root up a 
belief on the whole beneficial, or by a discreet silence. 
The imagination may still linger over the ancient and 
pleasing fictions, so long intertwined with the religious 
feelings of all the nations who have drawn their creeds 
from Palestine ; but calm reason is unable to acknow- 
ledge them longer as facts. A dispassionate examina- 
tion persuades us that there is no sufficient ground for 
believing that that land, more than others, has witnessed 
interruptions or suspensions of the laws of nature : the 
closest investigation fails to support the wondrous tales, 
the power of which over the imagination and heart was 
enhanced by the solemnity of religious sanction : we re- 
cognize with some disappointment, that although men in 
every land have been liable to mistake, exaggerate, or 
deceive, the sun and moon have, in all probability, ever 
pursued their regular course over the valleys of Judea ; 
that attraction of gravitation has probably never ceased to 
operate on the sea of Galilee ; nor the human frame, in the 
region from Idumea to Tyre and Sidon, to be affected by 

B 



other causes than those which fall within the limits of the 
physical and organic laws of nature. 

Yet, after having arrived at this result, the inquirer 
presently sees the horizon begin to clear, and many diffi- 
culties which had hitherto enveloped religion break up 
and disperse. Subjects most interesting to mankind no 
longer appear clogged with absurdities, which the utmost 
ingenuity of scholarship could not reduce into a shape 
admissible before reason; the progress of moral science 
is no longer impeded by the necessity of accommodating 
conclusions to a collection of written precepts ; nor the 
supply of mental strength made dependent on the recep- 
tion of tales of the most difficult verification. At the same 
time, whatever of real moral value was contained in Christ- 
ianity and its records may be retained ; nor does the im- 
portant modification of opinions alluded to, appear even 
to bring with it the necessity of running counter to the 
feelings of this age and country by a renunciation of the 
Christian name. It must rejoice the lover of peace as 
well as of truth, to feel convinced that there is no incon- 
sistency in retaining a name in favour of which there are 
such strong, and on many accounts deserved, preposses- 
sions, amongst the mass of his countrymen and benevo- 
lent men of every clime ; and that this minor point need 
not contribute to a separation in feeling and action, which 
the difference of opinion alone would not have occasioned. 

Even those more liberal Christians, who have been 
willing to admit that many different opinions might co- 
exist within the pale of Christianity, have generally taken 
it for granted that a belief in its miraculous origin at least 
was essential. But a close attention to the history of 
Jesus Christ will shew that this distinction is perfectly 
arbitrary ; and that a total disbelief of miracles and pro- 
phecy no more disqualifies a man for bearing with pro- 
priety and consistency the Christian name, than any 
other deduction from the exuberant belief which places 



him in the Triune Godhead. The most striking points 
in Christ's career and preaching shew, that contribution 
to human improvement constitutes the most prominent 
title to the name of Christian, regarded merely in an ety- 
mological and historical sense ; and that, if the benevolent 
Deist feels inclined to honour the Jewish reformer by 
perpetuating his name in this honourable connexion with 
philanthropy, he may do so without even historical inac- 
curacy. 

By some the essence of Christianity has been supposed 
to consist in the acknowledgment of Jesus as God, or the 
Son of God; by- others, in looking to his death as an 
atonement for the sins of the world; by others, in the 
belief that he was raised from the dead, or that he was a 
man approved of God by miracles, wonders, and signs ; — 
in all which views, men appear to have been more regardful 
of what was said by the followers of Christ, immediate or 
subsequent, than of that which formed his own main 
purpose during his life. 

The earliest and original doctrine of Christianity, the 
feature which characterized the infant religion at its birth, 
that which John the Baptist preached even before Jesus 
came, which Jesus himself made the chief topic of almost 
every discourse, and which he bade his followers proclaim 
in every town from Galilee to Jerusalem, accords with 
the views of every benevolent man. Prepare for the 
kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven approaches. 
Pray that the reign of God may come on earth as it is in 
heaven. 

Amidst the many evils which disfigure the present 
aspect of mankind, men find a satisfaction in turning to 
the beautiful imaginary picture of a state of human inno- 
cence and perfection. To the frequent manifestations of 
the lower feelings which must occur during an imperfect 
state of human nature, a pleasing contrast is presented 
by the contemplation of a period, when all the noxious 

b2 



features of the human character shall have disappeared, 
and the face of society shall present a rich moral land- 
scape of virtue and happiness. This contemplation is 
the more natural, inasmuch as the moral world seems 
hitherto evidently behind the natural in point of perfection. 
The one seems to be nearer than the other to the perfec- 
tion of which its nature admits. All the different views 
of nature contain something to please us ; the corn field, 
the meadow, or the deep blue sea, may have more of tran- 
quil beauty ; yet even the wild heath, the barren desert, 
the storm, and the volcano, gratify our sense of the vast 
and sublime. But in much of the moral world, in the in- 
sincerity, meanness, and hard unscrupulous selfishness, 
which prevail to a great extent, there is nothing to 
gratify any perceptions within us ; and we are tempted to 
inquire if both proceeded from the same creator, or if he 
was here less able to repel the encroachments of Arimanes 
than in physical nature. Nevertheless, amidst all the 
deformity of which we complain, enough of beauty is seen 
to persuade us that both kinds of creation proceed from 
a source in which benevolence at least was preponderant; 
and we recognize the impress of the same God in the 
star and hill, and in the body and mind of man. Hence 
the disproportion which strikes us, in the apparent amount 
of evil in the two creations, suggests, that the moral world 
does not at present exhibit the entire plan which the 
Creator had in view in its formation ; that it has either 
fallen from the perfect state in which it issued from his 
hand, or not yet arrived at that full growth which he 
contemplated as its ultimate destination. 

The moral sentiments having existed in some degree 
in all ages and countries, whilst unfortunately there has 
never been wanting a sufficient quantity of violence and 
fraud to shock them, these thoughts have appeared in 
different forms amongst many nations, but generally 
under one or other of those referred to, viz. a state of 






5 

perfection already past, or one which is yet to come ; a 
golden age at the beginning, or one at the end of the 
world. 

The idea appears in some parts of the poetical writings 
of the Jews, called the Prophets, who represent the 
imagined state of happiness as still to come, and to be 
revealed in the times of the end, or in the day of the 
Lord. The representations of it in these writings are 
more interesting to us than any others, because from 
them are derived principally those ideas and doctrines 
which, although now owing to a long series of modifica- 
tions their identity is hardly to be recognized, have ex- 
ercised under the name of Christianity such an important 
influence over mankind. Let us, then, recall the view r s 
on this subject of those whom Christ and the apostles 
quoted as high authorities, the Jewish prophets. 

The book of Isaiah frequently represents that it will 
be the peculiar distinction of Jacob, to spread the know- 
ledge of his God and peace throughout the earth. 

Ch. ii. 2 — 4: " And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the 
mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the 
mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills ; and all nations shall 
flow unto it. And many people shall go and say r Come ye, and let us 
go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob ; 
and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths : for out 
of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jeru- 
salem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many 
people ; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their 
spears into pruning-hooks : nation shall not lift up sword against nation, 
neither shall they learn war any more." 

Speaking of the future king of the stem of Jesse, who 
is to restore the peace and glory of Israel, he says, that 
in his days, 

" The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down 
with the kid ; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together ; 
and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed ; 
their young ones shall lie down together ; and the lion shall eat straw 
like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp. 



and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They 
shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain : for the earth shall 
be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea," — 
Chap. xi. 6 — 9. 

In the magnificent description of Israel's future gloiy, 
chap, lx, all the other nations of the earth are to derive 
enlightenment from the favoured nation. 

Isaiah lx. 1 — 3 : " Arise, shine ; for thy light is come, for behold the 
darkness shall coyer the earth, and gross darkness the people : but the 
Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And 
the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy 
rising." 

Chap. lxi. 11: " For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the 
garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth ; so the 
Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all 
the nations/' 

In the vision of Darnel, the last kingdom of the saints 
of the Most High is to extend over the whole earth. 

Dan. Yii. IS, 14 : " I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like 
the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the An- 
cient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was 
given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, 
and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting domi- 
nion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not 
be destroyed/' 

Micah, after lamenting the vices and sufferings of 
Israel in his own time, repeats the splendid anticipation 
of Isaiah concerning the last days. 

Mic. iv. 3, 4 : " nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, 

neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man 
imder his vine and his fig-tree ; and none shall make them afraid : for 
the mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it." 

The sentiments in the other prophets, and even in 
some parts of those here quoted, are much inferior to 
the above; and in general it must be allowed that the 
most exalted Jewish ideas, respecting the earth's expected 
improvement, were mingled with a large mass of mere 



national prejudice and vanity. The kingdom of God 
was hardly contemplated with so much satisfaction as 
being the universal reign of righteousness, as for the 
sake of that triumphant empire which Jacob should then 
assert over the nations that had oppressed him, and 
that glorious sceptre which David's great successor should 
sway over the whole earth. If the nations were to be 
brought to righteousness, it was to be by means of the 
law proceeding from Zion. If in the day of the Lord 
the Gentiles were to rejoice in the light of the Holy One 
of Israel, the same day was to behold the confusion of 
his adversaries, and to be a day of the Lord's vengeance 
on behalf of Israel. Nevertheless, the sublimity of the 
views to which these writings occasionally reach, may 
lead us to overlook the Jewish prejudices with which 
they abound, and in some degree, to join in the estima- 
tion in which they have so long been held. 

Jesus Christ learned from the prophets the idea of a 
future state of perfection on earth, called the Kingdom 
of heaven, improved it from the resources of his own 
higher moral nature, and brought all the powers of a 
fertile eastern imagination to illustrate it so as to awaken 
the enthusiasm of his hearers. He delighted to portray 
the kingdom in a variety of forms, and with the imagery 
naturally proceeding from Jewish habits of thought. 
The multitudes listened with delight to discourses which 
for a moment raised their minds to ideas above their usual 
level, and to views of which the grandeur was probably 
augmented by not being clearly defined. Many of every 
class, from the Galilean fisherman to the member of the 
Sanhedrim, loved to hear the prophet of Nazareth ex- 
patiate on his favourite theme, and looked for the ap- 
proach of that Kingdom in which the will of God should 
be done on earth as it is in heaven. 

The following is a recapitulation of the principal texts 
in the four Gospels referring to the Kingdom of heaven :— 



8 

Matt. iii. 2 : John the Baptist preaches repentance, as a preparation 
for the kingdom, iv. 17 : " From that time Jesns began to preach, 
and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." v. 3 — 12: 
Humility, mercifulness, and patience in suffering, necessary in order 
to attain the kingdom. Ver. 19, 20: Doing and teaching his com- 
mandments confer greatness in the kingdom. Greater righteousness 
than that of the Scribes and Pharisees necessary, vi. 10 : " Thy king- 
dom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven/' vi. 33 : " Seek 
first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things 
shall be added unto you." vii, 21 : " Not every one that saith unto me, 
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth 
the will of my Father which is in heaven." viii. 11, 12 : " Many shall 
come from the east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom 
shall be cast out into outer darkness." ix. 35 : Jesus preaches the 
gospel of the kingdom, and heals diseases, in many cities and villages. 
x. 7 : Appoints twelve apostles to preach the kingdom through the 
cities of Israel, xi. 11: " The least in the kingdom of heaven is 
greater than John the Baptist." Ver. 12: " From the days of John the 
Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the 
violent take it by force." xii. 28 : " But if I cast out devils by the Spi- 
rit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you." xiii. : Para- 
ble of the sower. Perseverance in the midst of temptations necessary 
to attain the kingdom. The multitude does not understand its mys- 
teries. The kingdom of heaven likened to the field of good seed and 
tares ; in the end of the world the wicked shall be cast into a furnace of 
fire, and the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of 
their Father. Like to a grain of mustard-seed ; — to leaven ; — to a 
treasure hid in a field ; — to a pearl of great price ; — to a net gathering 
of every kind ; at the end of the world the wicked shall be separated 
from the just. xvi. 19: The keys of the kingdom promised to Peter. 
Ver. 28 : " Some here shall not taste death, till they see the Son of man 
coming in his kingdom." xviii. 2 — 4 : To be humble as little children 
qualifies for the kingdom. Ver. 23 — 35 : In the kingdom of heaven 
there will be a reckoning, and those who have shewn mercy will obtain 
it. xix. 12: " Some eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He 
that is able to receive the saying, let him receive it." Ver. 23 : "A rich 
man shall hardly enter the kingdom of heaven." Ver. 28 : Promise of 
twelve thrones to the apostles, in the regeneration, xx. 1 — 16: Para- 
ble of the vineyard; the last labourers made equal to the first. 20 — 
28 : Jesus rebukes Zebedee's children, who sought places of distinction 
in his kingdom, xxi. 1 — 11: Rides into Jerusalem,, as the predicted 
lowly King of Zion. Ver. 31 : " The publicans and harlots go into the 



kingdom before" the chief priests and elders. Ver. 43 : Those who re- 
ject the Messiah, threatened that the kingdom shall be given to others, 
xxii. 1 — 14: The kingdom like a marriage feast ; the guests refusing 
to come, and murdering the king's servants, he destroys them, and in- 
vites others, xxiii. 13: " The Scribes and Pharisees shut up the king- 
dom against men/' xxiv. 14 : " The gospel of the kingdom to be preached 
in all the world, and then the end shall come." xxv. : Parable of the 
ten virgins. The kingdom will be revealed unexpectedly. The Lord 
will require increase for his talents. The Son of man, sitting on the 
throne of his glory, will divide men into the two classes of righteous and 
wicked, xxvi. 29 : Jesus will not drink wine again until he drinks it 
new in his Father's kingdom. Ver. 64 : Jesus tells the high priest, " the 
Son of man will be seen hereafter sitting on the right hand of power, 
and coming in the clouds of heaven." 

The texts in Mark and Luke, merely corresponding with those in 
Matthew, are omitted. 

Mark i. 15: " The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at 
hand." 26 — 29 : The kingdom like seed growing secretly to a full 
harvest. xii. 34 : The Scribe who loved God and his neighbour, 
not far from the kingdom of God. xv. 43 : Joseph of Arimathea, 
one of those who " waited for the kingdom of God." 

Luke i. 33 : The child Jesus " shall reign over the house of Jacob 
for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end." iv. 43 : Jesus 
says, " I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also ; for there- 
fore am I sent." ix. 62 : " No man having put his hand to the plough, 
and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." xii. 32 ; It is the 
Father's good pleasure to give the kingdom to the little flock of disci- 
ples, xiv. 15: A guest exclaims, " Blessed is he that shall eat bread 
in the kingdom of God." Jesus answers by the parable of the supper, 
of which the poor and blind and lame were brought to partake, instead 
of those first invited* xvii. 20, 21 : " And when he was demanded of 
the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them 
and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. Neither 
shall they say, Lo here, or lo there ; for behold the kingdom of God is 
within (among) you." xix. 1 1 : On arriving at Jerusalem, the disci- 
ples thought the kingdom of God should immediately appear. Parable 
of the nobleman who was rejected by his citizens, obtains a kingdom 
elsewhere, and returns to reckon with his servants, and take vengeance 
on his enemies, xxi. 31 : When Jerusalem is trodden down, and signs 
appear in the heavens, the kingdom of God will be nigh, xxiii. 42 : 
The malefactor says to Jesus, " Lord, remember me, when thou comest 
into thy kingdom." 

John i. 49 : " Nathanael saith, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou 



10 

art the King of Israel." iii. 3 : Jesus says, " Except a man be borrr 
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Ver. 5 : " Except a man 
be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of 
God." xviii. 36 : " My kingdom is not of this world : if my kingdom 
were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be 
delivered to the Jews : but now is my kingdom not from hence."* 

Jesus made virtue the chief qualification for partaking 
of the kingdom of heaven. To love God and one's 
neighbour, was to be not far from the kingdom of 
God. And he laid particular stress on virtues of the 
meek and benevolent kind. Blessed are the meek, for 
they shall inherit the earth.. ...Blessed are the peace- 
makers, for they shall be called the children of God 

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness* 
sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Those who 
in spirit are like little children, rather than the con- 
tenders for greatness, are fit for the kingdom of God. 
" By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if 
ye have love to one another." " Love your enemies." 
In all this, Jesus accords strikingly with the most ad- 
vanced morality of the present age, which admits that 
the prevalence of these dispositions is the most essential 
requisite to the improvement of the world. 

Moreover, although Jesus seems to have held the 
common Jewish notion of the exaltation of Israel, there 
are indications that, in his view, the righteous throughout 
the world would be partakers of the kingdom. In the 
parable of the tares, the field is the world, and the good 
seed are the children of the kingdom. — Mat. xiii. 38. The 
kingdom is like a net cast into the sea, which gathered 
fish of every kind. Ver. 47.f 

* The probability of some interpolations of later views, acquired 
by the church after the fall of Jerusalem, with the sayings of 
Jesus himself, especially in the last Gospel, is considered, ch. vi. 
and xvi., of " An Inquiry concerning the Origin of Christianity." 

t There is much difficulty in distinguishing accurately the 



11 

These excellent and enlightened views are enough to 
secure to Jesus the permanent respect of moralists, 
although it be admitted that he added to them some 
notions peculiarly Jewish, or of inferior merit. 

Jesus Christ, after a very short career, was put to 
death, a victim to the political suspicions which he had 
excited ; and the state of things, which he had announced, 
was found not to be near at hand. His followers con- 
tinued for a time to expect a kingdom of heaven, to be 
revealed in some extraordinary manner. Experience 
and reason have long set aside this expectation as chime- 
rical ; but at the same time they convince us, that the 
tendency of the world is actually towards the realization 
of the conception described, a state of happiness and per- 
fection on earth ; and that the proper means of bringing 
it to pass, are human efforts in the cause of charity and 
knowledge. Thus the labourers in this cause are the 
only real fulfillers of the intention of Jesus. They are in 
effect bringing about that which Jewish imagination 
called Messiah's reign ; they are obeying in the most 
efficient manner Christ's most urgent command; and 
may therefore with peculiar propriety be called after that 
name, which, in reference to the future kingdom, was 
assumed by him. 



Undoubtedly, the views of Jesus were in some respects 
very different from those of the modern moralist. The 
expectation of a miraculous introduction of the kingdom,* 
and of his own exaltation as Messiah, naturally gave to 

views of Jesus himself on this point, both from a probable modifi- 
cation in his own teaching, after the arrival at Jerusalem and the 
non-acknowledgment of his Messiahship by the Jews ; and from 
the probable introduction of the more enlarged views of the church 
after the admission of the Gentiles. See some reflections on this 
subject, 16th chap, of " An Inquiry," &c. 

* This subject is considered, ch. xvi. of " An Inquiry," &c. 



12 

his teaching a general tendency to excitement and to a 
disregard of the common engagements of life.* With 
every allowance too for eastern style, it may be ques- 
tioned if the virtues of humility and reliance upon pro- 
videncef are not enforced to an extent inconsistent with 
self-respect, prudence, and energy of character. There 
is a general depreciation of the common enjoyments of 
earth ; poverty and suffering seem to be held up as actu- 
ally desirable, in preference to a happy earthly life, for 
the sake of obtaining a better title to a future reward. J 
This future reward, whether in the kingdom about to be 
revealed, or in an unseen state in heaven, is urged as the 
proper object of men's constant thought and desire. § 
The duty of self-denial seems to be inculcated to an 
extent 1 1 more consistent with the spirit of monachism, 

* His hearers are repeatedly commanded to forsake their kin- 
dred and occupations in order to follow him. He says to the 
multitudes, "Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all he 
hath, he cannot be my disciple :" Luke xiv. 25 — 33. The young 
man, who had kept the commandments, and was apparently making 
good use of his riches, is commanded, " if he will be perfect, to sell 
what he has and give to the poor, and to follow him :" Matt. xix. 
18 — 22. Marriage is not prohibited, but it is desirable for those who 
seek the kingdom of heaven to abstain from it. Matt. xix. 10 — 12. 

t Matt. v. 38 — 41 ; vi. 25 — 34. By comparing these precepts 
with some similar rabbinical proverbs in use among the Jews 
about the time of Christ, it appears unlikely that he intended them 
to be understood in that merely figurative sense which modern 
commentators usually affix to them. See Inquiry, ch. xvii. 
pp. 341—348. 

X Luke vi. 20 — 26. Blessed, be ye that hunger now, for ye 
shall be filled, &c — But woe unto you that are rich, for ye have 
received your consolation, &c. In the parable of Lazarus, Abraham 
appears to represent to the rich man, that he is tormented because 
he had received good things in his life-time, not because he had 
misused those good things : Luke xvi. 25. 

§ Matt. vi. 19—21. 

1 Matt. xvi. 24—26 ; Luke ix. 23—25. 



13 

than with that cheerful morality which would enlarge, 
rather than restrict, the bounds of innocent enjoyment. 
It seems not unlikely that Jesus, notwithstanding his 
general intellectual superiority and more liberal nature, 
had not entirely lost that estimation of monastic austerity 
and excessive heavenly-mindedness, which characterized 
the whole body of the Essenes. Hence those individuals 
or sects, in the Christian world, who have striven to attain 
a close conformity to the whole of the precepts of Jesus, 
have usually found themselves in a singular or isolated 
position with respect to the society around them, whose 
less stringent faith impeded but slightly the operation of 
natural reason and feeling. For these reasons, it is pos- 
sible that the precepts of the Gospels may not appear a 
complete and safe code of morality to the philanthropist 
or legislator who deems, that the appointed chief object 
of human effort is the increase of happiness and improve- 
ment upon this earth. 

It is true also, that the doctrine to which we have re- 
ferred, soon ceased to be the most conspicuous feature in 
the early church. The followers of Jesus, after some 
time, thought it of more consequence to assert the resur- 
rection and apotheosis of their lost master, and the eternal 
reward prepared for his disciples, than to adhere to his 
own most prominent doctrine. The expectation held by 
Jesus of an approaching speedy fulfilment of his anticipa- 
tions, would not lead him to enjoin the proclamation of 
these anticipations as the permanent distinguishing 
doctrine of his followers ; and they were naturally led to 
adopt as their leading tenets those which the progress of 
events and opinions rendered most interesting. 

It may be asked why, on this hypothesis of imperfect 
views and mixed motives on the part of the Founder of 
Christianity, this age should be inclined to render him 
any allegiance whatever, and to connect his name more 
than those of many other reformers, possibly more wise 



14 

and enlightened,, with the cause of human improvement ? 
If he were not God, nor the Son of God, nor a prophet, 
not even the wisest philosopher, or most perfect moral 
being that we can conceive of; if he were, in fact, only a 
Jewish peasant of intellect, imagination, and moral feeling, 
much, although not immeasurably, above the standard of 
his age and country ; why should his name be enshrined 
in this costly manner more than those of many other 
philanthropists, which would now be scarcely recognized 
by any but the students of biographical dictionaries ? 

Because the Christian system, in addition to such in- 
trinsic excellence as it possesses, has been long interwoven 
with some of the best affections of mankind, and has 
been forced upon their notice by a striking series of 
events. There may be writers who have drawn up 
theories of morals more complete, and more invariably 
correct, than that which can be collected from the New 
Testament. But human nature is so constructed, that 
other things besides correctness give a man's opinions 
a title to perpetual remembrance. Action in the world, 
even mprp £foan thought in the closet, contributes to an 
enduring memorial. If Jesus had merely written in a 
formal treatise what he could say concerning morals, his 
name might never perhaps have reached us : certainly it 
would have attracted less notice than that of the more 
copious and systematic Jewish moralist, Jesus the son of 
Sirach. But he also stood forth as a public reformer, 
opposed his own more liberal spirit to the bigotry of his 
time, arrested men's attention by assuming the remark- 
able character of Messiah, and died a martyr. In 
his own personal career, he illustrated much of his pre- 
cepts, and especially faith in heaven as the philosophy 
of suffering. The romance and pathos thus attached to 
his history, have given him a hold upon faculties of men 
more powerful than mere reason, and stamped all that 
proceeds from him with a weight and interest which the 



15 

mass of mankind would be slow to feel in mere philoso- 
phical merit. The hero of tales like those of the four 
Gospels, must ever be listened to with more attention than 
one who issues the most luminous disquisitions from the 
closet. So also the followers of Jesus were not merely 
writers, but by means of their organization, missions, and 
purity of life, revolutionized the human mind throughout 
the Roman empire, and reared the reformed Judaism 
amidst the ruins of polytheism and heathen philosophy. 
A long train of events of great historical importance is 
traced back to the lives of the Nazarene and his friends. 
From them has proceeded a succession of remarkable 
developments of the human mind. The early churches, 
with their affectionate spirit of brotherhood, and the 
pompous hierarchies which afterwards trod on the necks 
of princes ; the desert cell of the solitary Egyptian, and 
the gorgeous cathedral with its solemn music and slow- 
moving trains of priests and virgins ; the councils of 
mitred and imperial metaphysicians, as well as associations 
of practical philanthropists ; the bigotry of inquisitions and 
crusades, as well as the calm resignation ^^ in clois- 
tered walls fixes its last hope on heaven ; ail inese are 
amongst the indices pointing to the immense influence, 
political and moral, which has been exercised upon the 
world for eighteen centuries by the Cross. 

It is not easy to decide the question, whether Christi- 
anity has hitherto produced more good or evil in the 
world. The varying systems of doctrines, which have 
passed under the name, may be considered as so many 
exciting causes, which, according to the prevailing dispo- 
sitions of men, have promoted the growth of good or evil 
actions. The savage warrior of feudal times felt the 
name of Jesus chiefly as an incentive to exterminate the 
enemies of the Cross; the humane philanthropist has 
endeavoured to honour the same name by traversing lands 
and seas to relieve the oppressed. The spirit of enter- 



16 

prise, war, and cruelty, would be impelled by its Christ- 
ianity to a crusade, and choose for its favourite texts, 
" I am not come to send peace on earth, but a sword;" 
and " He that hateth not his father, and mother, and wife, 
and children, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my 
disciple." Benevolence would be quickened by the Gospel 
to a more active cultivation of the charities of life, and, 
throwing a veil over its harsher features, would select for 
its mottoes, " Do good unto all men," " Love your 
enemies." In the same manner, the desire of eternal 
salvation has added vehemence to the spirit of persecution 
on the one hand, and given consistency and perseverance 
to charitable effort on the other. The close connexion 
which Christianity establishes between mind and its invi- 
sible source, has tended to withdraw the unsocial spirit 
still deeper into morose solitude; whilst, in the more 
kindly disposed, it has added to the character the charm 
arising from the capacity for the devotional sentiment. 
Thus may we find a Torquemada and a Las Casas appeal- 
ing to the same Gospel ; nor is it easy even for the most 
impartial to ascertain the balance of good or evil which 
it has been the means of drawing forth, during the few 
stages of man's history, which have yet witnessed its 
operation. Yet, if it be admitted that stagnation is the 
worst evil which can befal the human mind, a system, 
which has called forth so many powerful energies, has at 
least a claim to prior consideration, even though these 
energies may have been hitherto in great part mis- 
directed. 

It is impossible to estimate Christianity fairly by re- 
viewing the conduct of its professed votaries in past 
ages ; since history evidently does not supply the means 
of separating accurately that part of their conduct which 
was produced by their Christianity, from that which ori- 
ginated in their own inherent dispositions or other cir- 
cumstances. We must appeal to the judgment of the 






17 

enlightened modern moralist on the tendency of the New 
Testament, consisting of the story of Jesus and his dis- 
ciples, and their precepts. Does he find the prevailing 
sentiments arising from the study of these records, upon 
the whole greatly favourable to his views ? Does he find 
in them so much that is accordant with truth and virtue, 
that it is desirable to- retain the name of Christ and the 
Scriptures as useful and powerful allies, in all those 
schemes for human improvement which the increased 
knowledge of modern times sanctions ? 

Now, it will scarcely be denied by the attentive reader 
of the New Testament, that even though there be some 
things which he may regard with doubt or disapprobation, 
there is much which awakens the best feelings more 
powerfully than could be effected by the most correct 
formal treatise on morals. Here, in the pleasing style 
of eastern apophthegm and parable, we find pictures of 
the final triumph of righteousness ; the principle of bene- 
volence enforced in a manner which allows of its appli- 
cation to the most extended views of the promoter of 
social improvement; and a general inculcation of the 
milder virtues which humanize mankind. The contem- 
plation of the Deity is recommended under an aspect 
agreeable to reason, and congenial to the wants of the 
mind. Adversity meets with sympathy, and is directed 
to doctrines most calculated to give strength and patience, 
submission to the Divine will, and the hope of a future 
state. All this appears here with the weight due to 
things spoken by men who have acted an important part 
in the world; here, both romance- and reality combine 
to impart interest to the precept. Where shall we find 
the dissertation on moral sentiments which speaks like 
the Gospels ; where the professor of ethics who appeals 
to us with the same force as the inimitable Galilean, who 
teaches from the mount and the sea-side ; is comforted 
by angels, the spirits which minister heaven's secret aid 



IS 

to the soul ; and— the inevitable anticipation of human 
nature on behalf of dying merit — rises from the dead, 
and ascends to the right hand of God ? 

With no hostility, then, towards Christ and Christianity 
may the Theist renounce his faith in miracles and pro- 
phecy ; and without inconsistency may he be willing that 
the long train of associations which Christianity possesses 
with the history, the literature, the poetry, the moral 
and religious feelings of mankind, should long contribute 
their powerful influences in behalf of the cause of human 
improvement. Let all benefactors of mankind continue 
to look to Jesus as their forerunner in this great cause, 
and recognize a kindred mind in the Galilean who 
preached lessons of wisdom and benevolence in an early 
age of the world, and fell a sacrifice to the noble idea 
of introducing a kingdom of heaven upon earth. Let 
the good Samaritan still be cited as the example of hu- 
manity ; the passover-supper be remembered as the fare- 
well of Jesus to his friends; and God be worshiped 
under the character which he attributed to him,— the 
Father in heaven. Let painting and music still find 
solemn themes in the realities and fables relating to Jesus ; 
let feasts and holidays still take their names from the 
events of his life, our time be dated from his birth, and 
our temples be surmounted by his cross. 

Christianity, then, has been neither evil nor useless ; 
but out of it will proceed a further mental growth. The 
religion of Egypt, Judaism, Christianity, and the more 
advanced system, which at a future time may, by the 
appearance of some remarkable individual, or combination 
of events, come to be designated by another name, — are 
all so many successive developments of the religious 
principle, which, with the progress of mankind, will as- 
sume a form continually approaching nearer to perfect 
truth. And in proportion as other religions make the 
same approximation, it will be gradually recognized that 



19 

God hath made all nations of one mind, as well as of one 
blood, to dwell upon all the face of the earth. 






In this early age of the world, it is impossible to 
foresee the whole of the creed at which unimpeded rea- 
son will ultimately arrive on the subject of religion. On 
this, more than on any other subject, the love of pure 
truth has been checked by interest, prejudice, and fear. 
The pressing wants of the human mind in this respect, 
co-existing with ignorance, have enabled the artful and 
ambitious to make religion peculiarly an instrument for 
their purposes ; whilst the love of ease has led the mass 
of mankind to acquiesce readily in an usurpation, which, 
whatever were its inconveniences, pretended to satisfy 
fully their spiritual wants. To submit to authority, with 
all its burdensome terms, has been found by the world 
in general an easier bargain than to incur the labour of 
thought ; and those who preferred the latter could only 
expect to be regarded, even amidst the loudest pro- 
clamations of liberty of conscience, with the dislike na- 
turally felt towards those whose conduct tends to render 
men dissatisfied with a favourite purchase. And the 
more so, since this purchase was felt by the many to be 
the only means in their power of satisfying their want. 
Whilst nature was imperfectly understood, and the intel- 
lectual powers were but little cultivated, the many felt 
themselves incapable, by means of their own native pow- 
ers, of drawing clearly from the universe around them 
the conclusions which occasionally seemed to break in- 
distinctly upon them, but which their minds required in 
full assurance. Earth and skies continually suggested 
the idea of a First Cause, the knowledge of which seemed 
to be a natural want of the mind, and must influence 
materially the conduct. But was this instinctive feeling 
to be taken as full evidence of the existence of that 

c2 



20 

towards which it was directed ? — and if not, how should 
minds oppressed with worldly cares, uneducated, or having 
but imperfect help from science, work out such a vast 
conclusion from their own resources ? A word from Hea- 
ven would aid their weakness, solve their doubts, and 
afford them the delight of faith, without the trouble of 
acquiring it. What wonder, then, that men professing to 
have received this message from heaven, or to be its 
interpreters, should find a ready submission to their 
claims, succeed in having them admitted without a very 
rigid scrutiny, and continue to find docile recipients even 
long after they had begun, instead of bread, to give 
stones 1 During the ages of mankind's moral and intel- 
lectual minority, it seems indeed natural that authority, 
derived from the ascendancy of some few superior indi- 
viduals, should exercise guardianship over the human 
mind, and provide its necessary food until full-grown 
reason should be able both to guide and nourish itself. 
Hence the philanthropist regards with complacency the 
various Revelations which have afforded to men spiritual 
supplies, although not of unmixed purity ; and hears, in 
the supposed direct voices from heaven, prelude-sounds 
of the voice which speaks through nature and reason in a 
tone rising slowly into clearness in the lapse of ages. 

Eut in time the human mind feels disposed to claim 
its birthright of free judgment, and takes pleasure in the 
task of providing for its own wants. It finds a necessity 
not only to live, but to think. It looks upon the forest, 
the hill, and the star, not only as a panorama intended 
to give a momentary gratification to the eye, but as 
volumes calling to deep thought. It sees that the uni- 
verse gradually unrolls a succession of lessons which speak 
both to the intellect and to the heart, and conjectures 
that there may still lie some of surpassing importance, at 
present unsuspected, beneath the material surface of 
things. These, the sustained labour of the human mind 



21 

for many centuries will have to bring to light ; nor does 
it appear a strange dispensation that moral wealth, any- 
more than physical, should be the result of the accu- 
mulated earnings of many generations, by means of la- 
bour in itself pleasing and beneficial* 

It would be unreasonable to expect that the ultimate 
conclusions of the mind on religious subjects, should accord 
fully with any one of those early substitutes for developed 
reason, called Revelations. But as these could not have 
obtained prevalence unless they were, to a great extent, 
in accordance with some natural human sentiments, it 
may be conjectured that, in some important features at 
least, they will be found to agree with the conclusions 
referred to. 

The first question which occurs, after renouncing reve- 
lation, is, whether it be in reality necessary or natural 
to the mind to have any religion at all. Why should we 
seek the unseen, when there is so much actually before 
the eye ? Does not the world, cognizable by our senses, 
afford enough to interest, occupy, and direct us, during 
our threescore years and ten ? Does not nature supply 
ample materials to delight the senses, science to employ 
the intellect, and the results of conduct enough to engage 
us on the side of virtue ? Can any thing more than this 
be of any practical value ? May it not be a delusion to 
suppose that there is any real Existence beyond what 
appears ; or, at least, that such Existence is any concern 
of ours ? If there be a God, and if it were intended that 
we should know him and think of him, would he not 
have published himself in such clear characters as none 
could overlook ? Cease, then, to fatigue thyself with ab- 
stractions : thyself and the things around thee are real, 
but the unseen is a visionary speculation. Cease thy 
restless and unsatisfying researches into the cause of 
things, and be content with the study of things them- 
selves : release thy mind from its painful efforts to reach 



22 

what either is not, or is not by thee attainable ; use and 
enjoy all the good within thy reach ; view thyself as one 
small pivot in a machine of which it is no business of 
thine to discover the origin or the object ; find in man- 
kind and nature the only proper spheres of action and 
thought ; and dare to confess to thyself, if not to a pre- 
judiced and insincere world, " to me there is no God." 

Yet the mind cannot rest here. It feels that such rea- 
soning calls upon it to restrict some of its highest powers 
from their due exercise. To rest contented with what 
we see, is not in man. No dogma ever imposed by the 
most wanton church authority ever met with so much 
opposition, as would be encountered in the attempt to 
restrict men from inquiring into and forming theories 
concerning the Cause of the immense effects around 
them. In proportion as the mind awakes into life, it de- 
mands some kind of answer to the questions, What is 
the cause of all being ?— and, Have we any thing to do with 
this cause ? The indolent will fly to the nearest or most 
familiar authority for satisfaction ; but few, who have 
once discovered the want, can be content to leave the 
vacancy entirely unfilled. Every view of nature revives 
the questions ; the beautiful and sublime in the earth and 
heavens are felt to be something beneath the powers of 
man, if regarded only as affording gratification to the 
senses and fancy ; deeper chords He in him waiting to be 
struck ; and what he sees must ere long suggest to him 
the knowledge and love of the unseen. 

It cannot be denied that this train of thought is not 
entered into readily at all times, or by all. A large pro- 
portion of mankind, including many of the moral and 
talented, are too much occupied with active pursuits to* 
bestow more than a slight passing attention on such ab- 
stract subjects as the cause of things, the nature of the 
Deity, and the like. These subjects they leave to the 
clergy. Their importance even makes men unwilling to 



23 

touch them with that insufficient degree of thought 
which they have been able to bestow upon them. Hence 
some questions of the deepest interest lose the benefit of 
that free unrestrained discussion which is the surest 
method of evolving truth. The reverence which keeps 
men at a distance makes them also lose sight of an 
object; to keep up an interest, they must be allowed 
to approach and inspect. Neutrality, however, arising 
from these causes, is not indifference. Although disin- 
clined to dwell frequently upon religious subjects, most 
of the practical men referred to, the promoters of the 
business of the world, admit their importance in regard 
to individual and social happiness. The legislator or 
citizen may have seldom thought upon the proofs of the 
existence of an Intelligent first cause ; he has neither had 
time to study the arguments of natural theology, nor the 
evidences of revelation : but he is able to appreciate some 
of the effects which the recognition of a God produces 
upon the moral condition of men ; he feels that such a 
belief is satisfactory to the mind, and comes in aid of 
every plan for improving society. He judges of the tree 
by its fruits. Unable himself to discover the root, he 
yet concludes that the source from which proceed so 
many ramifications bearing palpable and useful effects, 
cannot itself be a mere visionary abstraction, existing 
only in the brains of theologians and metaphysicians. 
His short reasoning is, — I see that it is well for men to 
believe that God is ; therefore he is. Yet, conscious of 
some deficiency in this reasoning, he gladly receives the 
assistance which any well-reputed authority offers; and 
especially welcomes that* which, from antiquity, vested 
interests, and the countenance of large influential bodies 
of men, appears to him to have had hitherto the greatest 
weight, — the revealed Word of God. 

The conduct, then, of the majority of enlightened and 
benevolent practical men, who devote but little attention 



24 

to religious subjects, is not a proof of latent Atheism, but 
proceeds rather from a persuasion either that such subjects 
are out of their sphere, or have been already determined 
upon by higher authority. Truths of this kind, they 
admit, are of great practical importance \ but it is their 
part to act quickly, rather than to think deeply: the 
divine presence is not felt in the crowd, nor the divine voice 
distinguished amidst the hum of men. Let him who has 
leisure seek for truth in the groves, endeavour to catch 
those whispers of Nature which are only heard in her most 
lonely recesses, and impart the precious oracles to the world. 
Solitude is indispensable to deep thought, and conse- 
quently to the discovery of truth. The laws of gravita- 
tion were discovered by much patient calculation and 
reflection, apart from the multitude. Hence it would be 
no objection to the doctrine of an Intelligent first cause, 
if it were admitted that it is not obvious at first sight ; 
that by men of the world it is held chiefly in deference 
to authority, or for the sake of expediency ; and that a 
real conviction of its truth is attained only by the few 
who are able to retire into themselves to think. The 
tendency of abstract truths to fade away from the mind, 
when engaged in active pursuits, is no argument against 
their reality. The laws of Kepler, which appeared so 
clear and striking to the student in his observatory, may 
be remembered as uninteresting and even doubtful 
visions, after he has been for a long time immersed in 
things nearer to the senses, and forgotten the demonstra- 
tion on which they rested ; but let him retire again into 
the stillness of nature, and endeavour to descry again the 
lost planetary characters ; — by degrees they come out into 
brightness and magnitude, and display again the asto- 
nishing declaration in full distinctness. So may it be with 
a greater revelation than these, — the existence of God. 
Nature bears it inscribed in all parts; but man is not 
able immediately to read it. By degrees only he learns 



25 

the characters which convey the deep sense, and what he 
has learned by intent meditation occasionally seems to 
fade away : nevertheless Nature still remains ; and what- 
ever truths she really bears inscribed, must continually 
re-appear to him who seeks her, and, in the end, be 
brought out in clearness to the whole world. The hiero- 
glyphics are ineffaceable ; the tablet is continually within 
view ; time, then, must ever bring men nearer to Nature's 
great revelation, the full knowledge of God.* 

Atheism asserts that we have no right to infer the ex- 
istence of any thing more than what appears to our 
senses. The Universe exists, and may be called God, if 
we will ; but where and what is God, distinct from the 
universe? This great Whole exists; — why, we can no 
more tell than we can why there should always have 
been an universal Nothing : but how is the difficulty re- 
moved by supposing an imaginary being distinct from the 
universe, whom we call its Creator ? The problem is 
merely shifted, for we can no more account for this 
being's existence, than we could for that of the universe. 
What caused God, is as hard to answer as, what caused 
the universe. We may as well acquiesce in ignorance at 
the first step. Unless we invent another cause which 
caused God, and continue to suppose preceding causes ad 
infinitum, it is evident that we must somewhere be content 
to admit a first uncaused cause ; and why not admit it at 
once in that which appears before us as a palpable fact, 
this material universe itself, of which we and all things 
are parts ? What necessity for imagining an intelligent 
creator ? Often million possible forms of matter, we see 

* The religion of the universe consists in knowing God ; and 
that knowledge is not a simultaneous burst of light, or lights, upon 
the mind, but an accumulation of particulars perpetually increasing; 
and hence it is in conformity with the slow but certain intellectual 
advancement of man. — Dr. Fellowes 1 Religion of the Universe. 
p. 121. 



26 

the one which is. The universe exists; every thing that 
exists must have certain properties ; the universe pos- 
sesses the property of unfolding in succession various 
forms of matter, organization, and life. All around us is 
the result of the inherent powers of nature, or, in other 
words, the necessary properties of the universal matter. 
To admit that matter exists with these properties, is no 
more difficult than to admit that it exists at all. If 
matter exist uncaused, having extension and solidity, it 
may also exist uncaused, having the property of develop- 
ing life. Where we can trace the causes of any effects 
which we see, let us admit theia, but not invent fanciful 
ones. That this wondrous harmonious whole exists* is a 
fact ; that Intelligence caused it, and sits an invisible po- 
tentate guiding and directing it, — is a dream. 

This is Atheism. It bids us sink into incurious 
repose respecting unseen causes, as being neither our 
concern, nor within our reach. And if man could indeed 
extend his thoughts no farther than to what he saw and 
touched, he must acquiesce in this barren negation of 
inquiry. But a prominent part of his nature, the reflective 
and moral, asserts its right and capacity to penetrate 
beyond what is seen, and presses Atheism with the 
further question, — Is it more reasonable to suppose that 
this universe has been produced by Intelligence or 
not? 

If we can imagine ourselves placed in a situation where 
there was no analogy to guide us, i. e., where we had no 
experience of the kind of effects which Intelligence is capa- 
ble of producing, the question might be very difficult to 
answer. Yet here we should only be compelled to confess 
ignorance: we should say, we cannot tell whether this 
universe exists without any cause beyond what we see ; 
it does not appear clearly absurd, although difficult to 
conceive, that matter should have, of its own nature, a 
non-intelligent power of developing the various forms 



27 

which make up the universe. This power might be 
either the necessary result of the known properties of 
matter, extension, solidity, attraction, mobility, and the 
like, in certain combinations ; or it might be some additi- 
onal property, distinct from all these, but, like them, non- 
intelligent. This does not at once appear impossible. 
But neither, on the other hand, does it appear absurd that 
there should be some further cause for the development 
of nature, viz., either some property of matter of a dif- 
ferent hind from those mentioned, or something alto- 
gether independent of matter. If Intelligence be pro- 
posed as this further cause, we ought to have an example 
of what it is, and a specimen of the effects which it is 
known to produce. Then only can we judge whether 
Intelligence be a proper and probable cause of the effects 
which we see in the universe. 

Now, we have an instance both of what intelligence 
is, and of the effects which it is capable of producing, 
viz. in ourselves, and in the results of mankind's invent- 
ive powers. The question supposed is answered by an 
analogy between the effects which human intelligence is 
known to produce, and those which we see in nature. 
The progress both of art and science continually strength- 
ens the analogy ; that of the former by affording a more 
complete instance of the known effects of intelligence, that 
of the latter by extending our knowledge of nature. 

Let us imagine ourselves placed before a varied land- 
scape, of which one feature is a noble mansion. The 
question occurs to us, What caused that mansion? 
Unless we call in that extreme scepticism which appears 
sometimes in our disputations, but never in our practice, 
we reply at once, the intelligence or mind* of the builder, 

* Intelligence, or the reasoning power, is one of the manifesta- 
tions of Mind ; but Mind may include much more, sentiments and 
affections for instance. I prefer to fall into the use of the more 
general term, because the same kind of reasoning which leads us 



28 

and feel perfectly satisfied with the answer. Although we 
had not seen that particular mansion built, we had seen 
other similar artificial structures in the process of building, 
or we had had opportunities of knowing what means 
were employed in raising such structures; and in all 
cases we had invariably found that the mind of a 
builder was necessary to produce the building. In the 
particular instance before us, we could not refuse to re- 
cognize a similar cause, although unseen to us, without 
doing violence to that principle of our mental constitution 
which leads us to infer the connexion of similar causes 
with similar effects ; a principle which is practically ad- 
mitted as a sure and sufficient basis for the whole reason- 
ing and conduct of life. To the suggestion, that although 
other mansions were produced by the mind of a builder, 
yet that particular one might have existed for ever, or 
come into being without any cause beyond the inherent 
properties of the materials themselves — we should answer, 
that hitherto we had had no experience of an instance of 
this kind, nor any reason to believe that there had ever 
been such an instance ; that consequently we must rest 
in the conviction which common sense, or reasoning 
flowing from the natural healthy use of the faculties, 
forced upon us; viz. a conviction derived from an ac- 
cessible and abundant analogy. 

The mansion, then, was caused by mind ; — what caused 
the other parts of the landscape, the trees, the grass, 
the water, the sun, and the animals ? Analogy forces 
upon us here, also, the answer, — Mind. 

For those appearances in the mansion which indicate 



to infer intelligence in the creating principle, may lead us to infer 
more. There is no incorrectness in adopting the wider term, 
because wherever there is intelligence there must be mind ; and 
there is a convenience in giving to the principle referred to a 
name, which without necessarily implying, allows room for, the 
further qualities which may appear attributable to it. 



29 

to us so irresistibly the agency of mind, the adaptation 
of materials to each other in such a manner as to produce 
a beautiful or useful result, are found in greater force and 
variety in the scenery around. A single leaf, blade of 
grass, or limb of an animal, when we come to examine 
it, displays joints, vessels, tubes, and other apparatus, 
more varied and highly finished than any in the artificial 
structure and its contents. Yet, in many parts, there 
is sufficient resemblance to impress us with the convic- 
tion of the same kind of mental agency. 

This common argument from design does not always 
strike us with much force when viewing objects in nature, 
because we forget or overlook the fact, that these objects 
are each of them the result of an arrangement of very 
complicated parts. From ignorance or indolence, we are 
apt to fall into the habit of looking upon a plant, an 
animal, a planet, or even the universe, as one simple 
whole or unit, and dispose of all nature with as much 
ease as if it were one ultimate globule. But science puts 
before us, in all directions, microscopes, telescopes, and 
analyzing instruments, and accustoms us to see in all the 
wholes which present themselves skilful adaptations of 
numerous parts. In proportion, then, as scientific attain- 
ments become familiar and common, men will be able to 
recognize, without effort, the traces of mind in the various 
material forms which surround them. At first, the lesson 
was spelled out with difficulty ; but, by long acquaintance 
with the characters, a meaning is inevitably perceived 
whenever we glance on a page. Nature, in every part, 
will at length present to us an easily understood as well 
as deeply interesting meaning, the evidence of a benefi- 
cent mental Energy, manifested in moulding matter into 
innumerable forms of the beautiful and useful. 

Nature, in its most obvious aspects, does not at once 
impress us with the idea of design. The rocks, the 
woods, the sea, and the stars, seem thrown together with 
a wildness and irregularity, which rather leave the idea 



30 

of chance. Some degree of science is necessary to the 
first conceptions of design. The motions of the heavenly 
bodies, the watering of the earth by means of rain, and 
the adaptation of the productions of the earth to the 
wants of animals, present, however, appearances of ar- 
rangement open to the slightest observation, and seem 
to have first led men to the idea of an Intelligent cause. 
As the observation of nature, or science, proceeds, in- 
stances of arrangement multiply on all sides, till the 
moss on the rudest fragment in the wilderness, or the 
wave which washes the -wildest beach, are found to con- 
tain specimens of minute mechanism. Nature is not 
loquacious, although filled with inexhaustible stores ; she 
presents enough at first sight to attract the thoughtful ; 
but mankind must interrogate and study her for many 
ages, in order to come at all, perhaps to a thousandth 
part, of that which she has to communicate. The brilliant 
appearance of the heavens, and a few of the planetary 
motions, were enough to reward the gaze of the first 
Chaldean shepherds; but the persevering assiduity of 
mankind, from Hipparchus to Herschel, was necessary 
to procure them an insight into the depths of the universe. 
In the present age, science is sufficiently advanced to 
present abundant instances of harmonious arrangement, 
whether in earth, seas, or skies. But the conviction of 
an Intelligent cause does not appear invariably to accom- 
pany scientific progress. This may proceed from two 
causes; first, from a disinchnation to exercise the reflecting 
powers on unseen causes, whilst visible effects present 
such ample and ready themes of contemplation. Acqui- 
escence in this disposition of mind appears to be the 
chief argument of Atheism, which does not so much deny 
the existence of unseen causes, as refuse to enter into 
the search for them. But it seems improbable that a 
progressive knowledge of the mental constitution will 
sanction as true philosophy, that which appears to be a 
mere restriction of the reflective faculties. 



31 

Or, the non-acknowledgment of an Intelligent cause, 
even after an extensive acquaintance with science, may 
proceed from that over-scrupulousness, or indecision of 
mind, which refuses to admit any principle on the ground 
of high probability, or to receive any proposition whilst 
the contrary is barely possible. This is extreme scep- 
ticism, condemned as unreasonable by the general prac- 
tice of mankind. The evidences of design in nature, 
similar to those which appear in art, crowd in upon us 
from every side. If in the latter case the agency of mind 
be admitted, why should men demur at admitting it in 
the former ? Perhaps, from a suspicion that the analogy 
may not be sufficiently close. 

In some steam-engines, we find that the steam, after 
having performed its office in raising and depressing the 
piston, passes into the condenser, and becomes cold 
water, being in this state no longer fit for the purposes 
of the engine. But we find also an apparatus of pipes 
for conveying this cold water again to the boiler, that 
very part where there is a provision for converting it 
again into steam. That this apparatus is the effect of 
design or mind, we feel convinced of by the sight of it, 
and should acquire little or no addition to our certainty, 
if the maker were to stand visibly before us and declare 
himself as such. Even though we had never seen a 
steam-engine before, yet our certainty on this point would 
not be less, if we had been in the habit of witnessing me- 
chanical contrivances. 

In the human body, we find that the arterial blood, 
after having supplied nourishment to various glands, be- 
comes unfit for further use; and we find a system of 
veins for carrying it back to the heart, that very part 
which, by a connexion with the lungs, contains a provi- 
sion for re-converting it into arterial. 

Now, the circumstance which compels us to infer 
mental agency in the former case, the adaptation of parts 
to produce a certain end, exists equally, at least, in the 



32 

latter. We must infer mental agency here also by the 
law of our nature, which compels us to infer similar causes 
from similar effects. 

As in the various works of human art we recognize 
the same kind of mental agency, which we call intelli- 
gence, although in different degrees, according as the 
works are better or worse contrived, and, for aught we 
know, combined with different accompanying qualities 
in each artificer ; so do we recognize the same kind of 
agency, intelligence, in nature, although here it may be 
of a different degree, and possibly combined in the arti- 
ficer with other qualities different from those belonging 
to human inventors. 

In examining the columnce carnece, the semilunar valves, 
or other contrivances of nature, the thought frequently 
occurs, either that this is similar to what some ingenious 
mechanist has contrived, or what he might have invented 
by bestowing sufficient consideration upon it. So strong 
is the conviction of similarity of effect between nature 
and art, that many of the contrivances in the former do 
not appear to us, even in degree, absolutely beyond the 
scope of human ingenuity, if but time and means enough 
had been granted. 

So long, then, as the constitution of our minds compels 
us to reason from analogy, the proposition that the works 
of nature proceed from the development of the inherent 
powers of matter, can no more satisfy us than if the 
same were proposed as the cause of the works of art. 

It has been argued, that we cannot apply analogy to 
find the cause of the universe, because this is an unique, 
and we have no other caused universe to compare it with.* 
But we can compare it with parts of itself, viz. ourselves 
and our works ; and it does not appear why analogies arising 



* See Hume's Inquiry concerning the Human Understanding, 
Section xi. near the end. 



33 

thence should not have as much weight as if we could 
compare one universe with another. We have a right to 
reason from what we know ; we are so placed as to see 
causes in some small parts of the universe, and thence, by 
analogy, to infer something of the nature of the cause of 
the whole. 

Imagine the inhabitant of a distant country, in some 
degree acquainted with mechanical contrivances, inspect- 
ing an European steam-engine or watch. By long study 
he comes to perceive the object of the machine, and the 
adaptation of parts so as to effect that object. Knowing 
his own power of putting together matter with some de- 
gree of success, so as to produce certain effects, he con- 
cludes, rationally, that the machine before him must have 
proceeded from a being resembling himself in the pos- 
session of such a power. He may be ignorant of the 
form, colour, habits, and language of the unknown artist, 
but he reads his mind with as much certainty as if he 
stood before him; for the machine speaks in a language 
which needs no translation. If neither time, nor space, 
could hinder the intelligent Japanese from recognizing 
the kindred mind of the European by means of its works ; 
why should time, space, or any other mode of separation, 
prevent any thinking man from recognizing the kindred 
mind of the First Cause by means of its works ? Whether 
the unseen existence be separated from us by land, seas> 
and years, or by a different mode of being, matters not, 
if the work speaks clearly. The distance of the pole-star 
could not prevent the electric recognition; neither can 
the more impassable chasm between us and an existence 
shrouded from our senses. 

It might be objected that this mode of analogical rea- 
soning would prove too much, and lead us to conclude 
that the First Cause has material organs like our own, 
since' we infer the existence of these, as well as of mind, 
from all specimens of human art. But this objection 

D 



34 

supposes an abuse of analogy. We certainly do infer 
that, with respect to pieces of workmanship, apparently 
of human origin, the originators had, in all probability, 
hands and feet like our own; because we believe that 
there are no beings on the earth possessing the requisite 
mental endowments, except such as have likewise these 
organs as their means of acting on matter. But we could 
not infer justly that other beings, having mind, might 
not have different organs wherewith to operate on matter. 
A piece of mechanism, known to be brought from some 
part of the earth, leads us to infer, without much hesita- 
tion, that the maker had hands or feet. But if another 
piece of mechanism were brought to us, known to come 
from another planet, we should only dare to infer that 
the maker had some kind of prehensile power, by means 
of which he had put together the material parts. The 
intricacy and perfection of the work, if apparently sur- 
passing human art, might lead us to conclude that the 
unknown maker had means of penetrating into and guid- 
ing matter, more subtle and more effective than any 
human organ or instrument. They might be, in these 
respects, so different from human organs, that a compa- 
rison between the two could only be admitted as figura- 
tive. The mind, by means of the human hand alone, 
affects matter slowly and clumsily ; it learns to employ, 
in some degree, instruments provided by nature, from the 
wooden staff to the electric fluid and chemical solvent. 
But other minds might be gifted with the means of grasp- 
ing more directly the forces of nature, and of employing 
them with a facility, and to an extent, by us unattainable. 
They might cleave with the lightning, and communicate 
by the thunder. Where, from the effects, we should judge 
that this greater prehensility of the forces of nature had 
existed, we should conclude that the operating mind had 
been endowed with means of influencing matter more 
efficacious than our organs. 



35 

In the universe the mental agency appears to have 
operated upon matter, with a range and a subtilty, which 
are expressed in the description, — an Almighty pervading 
soul. The arm reaches beyond the farthest star, yet dis- 
criminates the breadth of a hair; it projects the heavy 
planet, and moulds the minutest particle. It is impossible 
to imagine that mind, acting through human organs, or any 
resembling them, could, after ages of essay and improve- 
ment, ever approach the operation of that agency either in 
magnitude or exquisiteness. To form a work, not only 
perfect in itself, but also containing a provision for pro- 
ducing its like in endless succession, would probably for 
ever baffle human ingenuity. But this is one of the most 
common properties of the works of nature. It is so diffi- 
cult to imagine any kind of organs, by which such an uni- 
versal efficient sway over matter could have been exerted, 
that we naturally acquire the notion that the first Causing 
Mind must have operated upon matter direct, without 
the intervention of any organs, and that every atom must 
have obeyed its influence with the same promptness as 
the nerve obeys human volition. 

Analogy, then, leads us to infer that the works of nature 
were caused by some kind of mind* as well as the works 
of art. But so far from proving that that mind operated 
by means of organs resembling ours, it rather brings us 
to the conclusion, that it must have had means of influ- 
encing matter very different from ours. The man moves 
bodies by impulses of his limbs ; we can imagine a being 
gifted with the power of doing so by directing towards 
the bodies at will the requisite degree of attraction or 
repulsion. More subtle agencies than these may be 
supposed to be subject to volition ; and thus may we 
refine from man's clumsy mode of operation, to a being 
in whom Mind acts directly and universally upon Matter. 

Even in the case of man, we know but little of the 
mode in which his mind acts upon matter. Our total 

d2 



36 

ignorance of the mode of action of a divine mind does, 
therefore, by no means disprove such action. Neither is 
it a disproof of this, that we are ignorant of the mode of 
the divine existence, whether it pervades the whole mate- 
rial creation, as a soul the body ; or sits an independent 
invisible potentate amidst its creatures. Ask also whether 
the Divine Mind threw off the creation at once, perfect, 
and holding its own resources of progression and develop- 
ment, or whether his energy is perpetually required to 
uphold his work; and the doubtfulness of the answer 
will perhaps be in proportion to the time of reflection. 
But where is the truth, the clearest ever acknowledged 
by men, which busy thought has not soon surrounded 
and clogged with embarrassing or unanswerable questions ? 
Man knows nothing but what lies close to something 
unknown or unknowable. 

How can God exist ? Answer first, how does man 
exist? Man is not the hand, nor the foot, nor the 
stomach, nor the brain, nor even the eye; but in the 
combined action of all his material parts do we recognize 
the man. And what is this action 1 Continue to question 
thus ; and the wisest deed, and the most expressive 
glance, are resolved into the motion of sundry clusters of 
oxygen, carbon, and the like, in different directions. 
Man himself shrinks into an abstraction, which soon 
becomes so hazy, that if, his existence depended on our 
power to define him, we should begin to doubt if we really 
had any fellow-creatures.* 



* Sic mentem hominis, quamvis earn non videas, ut Deum non 
vides, tamen ut Deum agnoscis ex operibus ejus; sic ex memoria 
rerum et inventione, et celeritate motus, omnique pulchritudine 

virtutis vim divinam mentis agnoscito Illud modo videto, ut 

Deum noris, etsi ejus ignores et locum et faciem, sic animum tibi 
tuum notum esse oportere, etiam si ignores et locumet formam. — 
Cicero, Tusc. Disp, lib. 1. cap. 29. 



37 

Nevertheless, man's existence is sufficiently palpable, 
although we cannot explain it. O that the First Cause 
had made his at least equally so ; that the awful Poten- 
tate had once unveiled himself to our eyes, or that his 
voice had once broken through the obstinate silence of 
nature ! Then we must have believed, without, or in 
spite of, any reasoning. Why ? because he would have 
appealed to our senses- Reflect; — and thou wilt find 
that he has appealed to some of man's highest senses, his 
moral and intellectual powers. He compliments man, 
by addressing the highest part of his nature. 

In what manner do we know a man best and most 
thoroughly ? — By his appearance 1 No. — By his conver- 
sation ? Better ; but not so well as by experiencing his 
conduct in a long series of deeds. These speak in the 
surest manner ; they speak to our moral and intellectual 
senses : and thus may we know thoroughly him whom 
we have never seen or heard. 

And thus does God choose to speak to man — by deeds. 
A more subtle mode of communication than the brightest 
vision or the softest whisper; but, to the thinking, more 
refined, more pleasing, more intelligible. Let children 
look for cherubim, and rhapsodists for voices from 
heaven; mature reason and feeling appreciate more 
highly Works of beauty and beneficence. In what 
language should God have spoken to men from heaven, 
or written his message in the sky ? In Hebrew \ m Greek ! 
in Sanscrit ! He has chosen his own language ; and has 
he not well chosen ? Does not the rose or the hyacinth 
speak as plainly as could any noun or participle, the 
verdure running before the breeze exceed the sense of 
any aorist, and the star rising above the wood convey 
more than any. Hebrew point ? God can do without 
hiphil and hophal, without pluperfect and paulo-post 
future : he is perfect in the language of signs, and the 



3S 

whole material creation is his symbol-picture to all ranks 
of intelligence. 

Yet God's magnificent language fails at times to con- 
vince us ; and restless scepticism suggests that, if the First 
Cause were really intelligent and beneficent mind, he 
might have made his existence more irresistibly clear to 
us. By what means ? Rack thy utmost ingenuity, scepti- 
cism, and say what God should have done to convince 
thee. He might have planted an angel showman on each 
work of nature, to inform every visitant, in clear tones, 
that it was produced by intelligence and benevolence ; 
he might have fixed Uriel for ever in the sun, to trumpet 
forth to the planets that the fountain of their light and 
heat was derived from a first cause provident and good : — 
would any deeper conviction really spring from the 
presence of these officious informants ? and would not Uriel 
himself soon come to be considered the most superfluous 
piece of work in the system ? Or, more solemn than this, 
the Divine Mind itself might make itself perceptible to-, 
man's senses by some periodical Shechinah^ and above 
the sapphire pavement of the firmament, or in the amber- 
coloured vision surmounting the wheels, or from the pillar 
of fire, or in the still whisper, startle man at times with the 
presence of his God. But what would avail the visitation 
of the awful Presence ? If it proclaimed each time that 
itself was the first cause of nature, intelligent and bene- 
volent, man would turn to nature for verification, and 
believe just so much of the proclamation as he found 
there confirmed. When accustomed to the visitation, 
he would gain little or no more certainty above that re- 
sulting from his inquiries into nature. He would give 
greater credence to the language to which God has, in fact, 
confined himself, — the language of deeds. 

There is a composure and dignity in God's manner of 
proceeding which impresses more forcibly than could be 






39 

done by the ostentation of actual speech and appearance. 
He is seen and heard in his works. The universe is the 
splendid but quiet language in which he utters his stu- 
pendous " I am." What is it all for ? occurs to every 
one who looks on nature and thinks. The First Intelli- 
gence intended to make himself known to all emanating 
intelligences, and this is the way in which he has chosen 
to effect it ; it being as easy to him to throw off all this 
array of worlds and mechanism, as to set the types of two 
short words. 

Nature thus seen as the language of mind, assumes a 
brighter hue and more vigorous life, than when viewed 
under a mere material aspect. What is this lovely pros- 
pect of variegated fields and sunny sky, if nothing in it 
can feel like thyself, nor aught in it indicate the existence 
of perception kindred to thy own ? Acknowledge that it 
pleases the eye, invigorates health, and supplies forms to 
the fancy ; — this is much : but is not the profuse beauty 
of nature worthy to do more, and to speak to all that is 
highest in man, his admiration, love, and reverence ? It 
does so, as soon as we see in Nature the offspring and 
index of Mind. What is all this prodigious array of 
shining globes, if they tell of nothing more than them- 
selves, insentient moving masses, fit to employ arithmetic 
and geometry with counting their numbers and laws ? 
Even when the deepest and most magnificent apartments 
of nature are thrown open, the soul remains solitary and 
chill at the sight of them alone, and asks if all this costly 
pile be intended to gratify only a small part of the man, 
leaving his more god-like faculties uninvited strangers? 
Does Nature indeed, in her softest recesses or most gor- 
geous displays, aim merely at inciting man to see, hear, 
smell, and calculate ? Yet what more than this can he do 
amidst mere matter, however large or small, or swift or 
slow ? But admit Mind as the cause of all, the pervader 
and beholder of all, and the chasm is filled; man 



40 

also admires,, loves, and venerates. A vivifying spirit is 
infused into creation, and gives the response which his 
soul demanded. The desert is not solitude, nor the sea 
dreariness. The thoughts of the unseen mental causes, 
which become associated with all the objects of nature* 
leave no want of Dryads in the woods, Naiads in the 
brooks, or Genii in the air. The Sun proclaims more vital- 
ity than light and heat, as he mounts above the hill; the 
Moon's crescent bends before the pervading Spirit; 
Arcturus follows his wain round the pole, and Andromeda 
rises from the wave, in unwearied obedience to the Invi- 
sible; the Pleiads shake adoration as well as radiance 
from their glittering cluster ; and all the mystic forms of 
the sky seem to look on the earth with, awful silent life, — 
for each and all are the work, the voice, and the token, 
of Living Mind. 

But, the laws of nature ! inflexible, insensible, but all 
moving; do they not reduce the universe to a regular 
perpetually going piece of clockwork, and exclude mind 
by filling all with lifeless iron mechanism? All this 
beauty and harmony is merely the consequence of each 
atom's obedience to its own laws. What causes the 
course of the planet ? Not God, but attraction of gra- 
vitation. What causes attraction ? Some preceding ne- 
cessary property of matter, which science will by and by 
discover. For each of the enormous collection of effects 
constituting the whole which we see, we find, on exami- 
nation, a material cause, with another material cause 
behind it ; and when we have discovered causes which 
appear invariably to precede certain effects, we call the 
sequence a law of nature. Admit the laws of nature to 
be, and what necessity for God ? Explore the chains of 
causes and effects;— as far as we can trace them, no 
mind appears ; the links join on perfectly, although only 
material, in the portion before us ; and so may they also 
in the length stretching out of our reach. The more 



41 

closely we examine any part of creation, the more do 
Cause and Effect rise up, and claim as their work what 
our glowing imagination had superficially attributed to 
the operation of Mind. Trace causes and effects then, 
O philosopher ; examine minutely each part of what you 
see, and say if the phantasm of a Causing Mind will not 
be gradually pushed out of the universe. 

Yes, by resting in a minute examination of parts only, 
and overlooking the result of each whole. Thus might 
mind be excluded from man and his works. What work 
of art is there, in which the aim and intent, i. e. the 
mind, of the artist may not be missed, if we confine our 
attention to groping amongst the details ? The examina- 
tion of these may let us into the secret of the means 
which he has employed to bring about his purpose ; but 
to seize this purpose, and read his meaning, we must look 
at the whole working and effect. Is it a sufficient ex- 
planation of the steam-engine to give, in correct detail, the 
connexion and dependence of each of its parts ; to shew 
how the working of one part must necessarily follow the 
action of the preceding ; to state that the water must be 
raised from the well, because the upward motion of the 
bucket is the necessary sequence of the motion of the 
wheel, as this is caused inevitably by the motion of the 
beam, which follows of necessity the stroke of the piston, 
which could not but result from the pressure of the steam, 
which must proceed from the action of heat upon the 
water in the boiler ? And here might an indefinite further 
chain of mechanical causes be supposed ; but this tracing 
of the chain of sequences leaves all the while unexplained 
the cause of the whole work. Each successive link sug- 
gests more forcibly the idea of something more, which 
arranged the train of material causes and effects, so as to 
end in an apparently contemplated result. 

But the mind of man, to which our pipes and boiler 
lead us, is itself a continuation of the mechanism, although 



42 

of more subtle construction and properties f Grant tills ; 
the mind is mechanism, inasmuch as it is moved by springs, 
of a pecuhar make, — reason, desires, and affections. Let 
us but trace nature back to this kind of mental me- 
chanism, and it is enough ; man has found a cause re- 
sembling himself. Call mind mechanism;, define it as 
subject to its own fixed laws, or otherwise ; it is sufficient 
to trace nature back to Mind- 

The explanation of the sequence of action in the suc- 
cessive parts would seem an absurdity, if offered as the 
sufficient cause of any piece of human art. Why, then, 
should it satisfy us any more in the works of nature 1 
The chains of cause and effect in these are longer, and 
reach back farther than we can follow ; in few of them, if 
any, can we arrive at the link where the causing mind 
itself operated upon matter.* Nevertheless, here matter 
seems no more gifted with the power of arranging itself,, 
than in brass wheels and iron bars ; nor of contemplating, 
anymore than they, the beautiful and useful result in which 
this long chain of adaptation ends. Do the sun, the rain, 
the soil, the roots, and the sap-vessels, take counsel to- 
gether to form the flower ? If they do not,, something else 
must; or the flower appears before us as a fortunate 
accident. What a vast assemblage of fortunate accidents 
make up the universe ! For here, millions of chains of 
causes and effects end in results beneficial to sentient 
beings ; and all these separate results harmonize together 
in a beautiful whole.f 

* The introduction of new species into the universe, not expli- 
cable by a transmutation of preceding ones, as in the case of the 
recent origin of man, seems an instance of this kind. And the 
same might be said, perhaps, of the introduction of the first sen- 
tient creature upon this planet. 

t After making the largest allowance for the results apparently 
evil or useless, such as pestilential vapours, burning deserts, 
noxious insects and reptiles, and the like, there remains a large 



43 

The more science advances, the more does it appear 
that all parts of nature are connected. Not only is the 
air about us adapted to the organs of plants and animals ; 
but the light from the farthest star finds itself at home on 
the retina of man. And the influence of bodies in re- 
motest space is reverberated through the firmament as 
far as our system by means of attraction. Probably, no 
part of the universe could be annihilated without detri- 
ment to the rest. On the supposition of separate inde- 
pendent chains of causes and effects, uncaused by mind, 
the Universal Harmony is a startling conclusion. We 
should not be prepared to expect this. Some few of the 
results might have formed harmonious combinations; 
but, in general, we should have expected to find the 
universe a miscellaneous assemblage of effects, having 
no apparent harmony, adaptation, or subserviency, — a 
heap of confused incongruous productions, which no art 
could piece together into a serviceable whole. The har- 
monious combination of the results of the chains is, 
indeed, a striking feature, which forces itself on the at- 
tention, and demands imperatively some solution. It 
could not be an accident ; for the chains are numerous, 



majority of beneficial productions in nature. The catalogue of 
apparent exceptions is continually decreasing as science advances, 
and contributes its items to the opposite list. For instance, insects 
and reptiles have enjoyed their own lives, and contributed to main- 
tain the earth in the state fit for animal life. When man comes 
into contact with them, the noxious qualities of some species indi- 
cate that man and they are not intended to dwell together ; and the 
very courses which are for his interest in other respects, clean- 
liness, improvement of soils, and draining of marshes, tend to ex- 
tirpate them. The large majority of acknowledged instances of 
good, and the probability that the remaining ones of apparent 
evil will come, in time, to be classed with them, allow of the general 
unqualified assertion, that the arrangements of nature end in bene- 
ficial results. 



44 

and the harmony complete ; there must have been some- 
thing influencing them all; some bond of union which 
has given a common character and tendency to all the 
chains, and established a relationship between the most 
distant and dissimilar parts of nature. What is this Some- 
thing, which has tied all nature together in a mysterious 
and beautiful connexion ? What answer can satisfy us as 
to this deep-working and^all-pervading somewhat ? — Cause 
and effect ? — an inherent property of Order in matter ? — 
a Law of nature ? None of these ; but a causing Mind. 

The harmony of the ereation, the adaptation of innu- 
merable parts into a whole which our minds recognize as 
skilfully arranged, beautiful, and useful, impresses us irre- 
sistibly with the agency of mind. And this impression 
cannot be weakened by rinding that the forming Mind 
has operated through a greater or less train of secondary 
causes. Grant that the planet has resulted from a frag- 
ment thrown off from the sun, and that the sun itself 
has resulted from the condensation of a whirling nebulous 
mass, and that this nebula proceeded from something 
else unknown, but all according to the fixed laws of 
matter ; still the Solar System, which is now before us, 
is not less admirable, nor less obviously suitable to the 
wants of plants and animals, for appearing thus as the 
result of a long train of secondary causes, than if it had 
sprung forth at once in maturity from the Creator's fiat. 
Trace back also the vegetable and animal forms which 
cover the earth, through a long series of developments, 
to the period when its surface seemed only to present a 
rude collection of unmoulded materials ; the riches of the 
Seasons, which we now experience, are not the less ra- 
vishing to men's minds and senses. Nature presents us 
with a magnificent and harmonious pattern. Who will 
say, that it is less obviously the result of a skilful mind* 
because the threads which compose it appear to have 
proceeded from the original design, through much ma- 






45 

chinery of cause and effect ? The pattern makes its own 
declaration of a designing mind, whatever be the means 
by which it was woven ; whether, at once, from the fin- 
gers of the artist, or through a long series of intermediate 
machinery. Secondary causes exhibit the machinery 
which God has made use of; the laws of nature shew his 
system of working with matter ; they are the loom of his 
own construction, through which he throws off from 
eternity a succession of splendid works.* 

Matter, in the same circumstances, appears always to 
act, or to be acted upon, in the same manner ; and these 
fixed rules of action or passion we call laws of nature. 
It is true that, supposing the different materials which 
compose the Creation to have been in existence, and 
these laws to have been in force, we can imagine that 
the present scene of things might have resulted, of neces- 
sity, from the progressive action and re-action of the 
materials. Place on the stage of infinite space, heat with 
its expansive power, water with its pressure in proportion 
to depth, the array of chemical elements with their 
respective degrees of affinity, and all matter with attrac- 
tion in inverse proportion to the square of the distance, — 
and we can imagine that these actors must necessarily 
have played together a drama, of which the different acts 
appear successively throughout eternity in the varying 
phases of the universe. But what kind of a scene results 

* In Being's floods, in Action's storm, 
I walk and work, above, beneath, 
Work and weave in endless motion ! 
Birth and Death, 
An infinite Ocean ; 
A seizing and giving 
The fire of the Living : 
'Tis thus at the roaring loom of Time I ply, 
And weave for God the Garment thou see'st Him by. 

Song of the Earth- Spirit, in Faust. 



46 

from the actions of all these various performers ? One 
of confusion, an assemblage of incoherent results, inde- 
pendent of each other, or warring with and destroying 
each other ? No ; but one in which our minds recognize, 
the more we study it, an harmonious and mutually sup- 
porting action. Then heat, water, and their brethren, 
have acted together with a concord which it would be 
impossible to inspire, in the same degree, into creatures 
even gifted with reason. Had they all some glimmering 
perception of the orderly and the beautiful, which made 
each one of the company fall readily into that mode of 
action, which, in combination with the rest, should tend 
best to such a result? The harmonious action of the 
drama proves it to be a regular and well-planned piece, 
and not a wild unconcerted pantomime ; if, then, we find 
nothing in the actors themselves indicating that they had 
powers sufficient to contrive it, we must conclude that 
the piece had an author of greater powers than they, who 
does not, himself, appear on the scenes, but under whose 
direction each of these subordinate agents is playing the 
part which he has written for it. And this Great Unseen, 
who has written the drama of the Universe, to be played 
by the different forms of matter, in the parts called laws 
of nature, for the instruction of all ranks of intelligence, 
— is Mind. 

But suppose, that what appear to us different laws of 
nature are only modifications of one and the same prin- 
ciple ; and that the researches of science will tend conti- 
nually to simplify all into the action of One great law of 
nature, seen by us under various aspects. This one law 
then was such, that, being applied to matter, it had the 
power of producing an harmonious and progressive cre- 
ation. What could be this law, having, in itself, the germ 
of endless variety, order, and beauty? How fortunate 
that matter happened to be subject to this, rather than 
some other, which should have produced quite different 






47 

effects! A law, principle, or somewhat, which is capable 
of producing in such abundance things which appear so 
much like the results of skill and intelligence! It rises 
itself into a Deity ; but then the words law or principle 
imply incogitation, and mere mode of action or being in 
something else. If we will not change the ideas which 
the sight of creation urges us to apply to this somewhat, 
we must change the words. Law or Principle is insufficient. 
And why embarrass ourselves in inventing new names 
and definitions for this hidden but powerful somewhat, 
which has caused creation, when we are so fortunate as 
to have close to us many specimens of something known 
to produce, on a smaller scale, similar effects ? And that 
is Mind, creating Mind. 

Imagine ourselves excluded for a moment from the 
view of surrounding creation ; what would be our reflec- 
tions on considering the existence of mind in ourselves ? 
— that the human mind was probably the only instance 
of this kind of existence ! Impossible. Man feels his own 
mind to be but a small portion of a power which awakens 
matter into the highest kind of life : he delights to feel 
this power in himself, and to exercise it ; but the attempt 
convinces him that he has it in only a small degree. The 
dominion over matter, which he finds his mental faculties 
bestow, gives him the desire to enlarge these faculties. 
Since, with his petty actual endowment, he is able to 
mould a few materials within his immediate reach, what 
dominion might he not attain, if he could indefinitely 
enlarge this power ? And may there not be beings gifted 
with a higher degree of that which he feels himself to 
possess on so limited a scale ? Can man be the moral and 
intellectual unique in creation ? How surprising, that, in 
a world so redundant with matter, this higher creation, 
mind, should be so scarce, that the narrow little por- 
tion of it found in man should be the highest degree of 
it existing ! But issue forth into the open view of nature ; 



48 

look from the earth to the firmament, at the stupendous 
mechanism of Nature, and hear her confirm thy hesitating 
thoughts. See here the infinite of that which in thee is 
finite : — mind is not in thee alone ; above, below, and 
around, see the effects of it when free, unbounded, im- 
mense : here it is in its most extended operation, in 
universal sway over matter. Rightly didst thou conjec- 
ture that thy small portion was not the only nor the 
highest degree of mind : as thy body is less than a point, 
when compared to the whole material creation, so, in 
proportion, is thy mind to the Spirit of the universe. 

Whence came the human mind ? — Not out of granite, 
nor ferns, nor ichthyosauri. History and observation, 
and even imagination, utterly fail to evolve man out of 
the polypus, whether through the dog, the elephant, or 
the ape.* Yet man and his mind do exist, and no effect 
is without a cause. Had Adam ancestors without a be- 
ginning ? Geology answers, No. Was there ever a time, 
hidden in bygone ages, when the human mind began 
to be ? Then something caused it, and this cause must 
have contained something corresponding to the powers 
in the effect. For mind could not spring out of imper- 
ceptive matter; nor could imperceptive matter, of its 
own accord, ever begin to think. At whatever date we 
find the commencement of the human mind, some kind 
of mind must have existed before it ; this in its turn, if 
not itself eternal, must have been preceded also by mind ; 
and thus must mind, in some form, have been eternal. 
Let thinking beings trace back their pedigree, and they 
will find it always run in the family of thought. The 
ancestral research confirms the discovery which just now 
thou hast made in nature ; there, were the indications of 
a mind in some manner resembling and related to thine 
own. Stretch thy sight over the line of thy progenitors 

* See Lyell's Geology, book iii. chap, i., ii. 



49 

into past eternity, and there thou seest in dim remoteness 
a Father of Spirits. 

But, again, where and what is this causing Mind, which 
reason forces us to acknowledge, but which glides away 
when we seek to personify it ? The angelic form riding 
on the whirlwind, — the Spirit moving on the face of the 
waters, — the invisible Potentate sitting amidst the stars, — 
are merely more refined creations of poor human fancy, 
endeavouring to bring the ideal before our senses. The 
Causing Mind will not be embodied, nor be known to us 
otherwise than as an abstraction. It communicates itself 
to us by its works ; but the works are not itself. Is it 
therefore less a reality ? Consider if we have no other 
and familiar instance of an abstraction which we count 
as a reality; something which cannot be seen, heard, 
smelt, tasted, nor felt, but which we yet recognize as an 
indubitable existence ? Yes, the mind of man ; we know 
it only by seeing the movement of various parcels of 
matter, and receiving certain vibrations of the air. 
These movements and these vibrations are not the mind ; 
yet we are so well satisfied with the perception which 
from them we obtain of another's mind, that we regard 
it as a real existence, and address to it our thoughts, af- 
fections, and sympathies. See the movements and vibra- 
tions pervading all nature, and thence be equally satisfied 
of the existence of the Divine Mind. 

What if we were obliged to admit, O Materialist, that 
the human mind is only a mode of action of certain par- 
cels of matter called the brain ! The human mind is not 
a whit the less, on that account, a delightful reality, nor 
all the sensations called mental, — thought, feeling, and 
imagination, springing within ourselves, or awakened by 
the approach of similar natures, the less real. Grant, then, 
for a moment, that the Divine Mind is some principle in- 
dissolubly connected with, and not manifesting itself 
apart from, matter. It is no less a reality, and, like our 

E 



50 

own, no less the object of thought and feeling, than if it 
were an immaterial essence sitting alone in an universe 
which contained no material atom. 

God is not seen, and therefore is not! Grovelling 
logic, contradicted by every thought of man which rises 
but a few degrees above his mere sensual nature ! Have 
we not faculties wherewith to contemplate the unseen ; 
by which this becomes to us, in numberless forms, a reality 
the highest and dearest ? Honour is not the note which 
discharges a debt, nor fame the applauding crowd, nor 
love the outstretched hand and welcoming smile. But 
out of the most refined visible manifestation arises 
something more refined and subtile still, the abstraction 
which our senses cannot grasp, but which the mind 
welcomes as the reality towards which it was uncon- 
sciously working its ascent from the things of mere sense. 
The five senses are but a small part of man; mere 
channels to supply the material out of which his incom- 
prehensible mechanism elaborates abstractions to feed 
his higher nature. Hardly equal to the brutes, if he 
could merely see, hear, smell, taste, and touch, — he 
becomes a god when he is able to understand, admire, 
love, and venerate. Poor is the noblest material form, if 
it reach only to the senses ; but out of those material 
particles, in themselves so dull and vile, arises the ideal 
essence of the sublime, the love-worthy, or the beautiful, 
which touches the mind into higher life, and which is the 
only reality it cares to bear away. The human form 
itself, in highest perfection, soon ceases to interest, unless 
it give rise to those abstractions which form our most 
subtile delight; but where these are, we can love and 
admire, although the unseen form be to us the same as 
not existing. Who does not make to himself a reality, 
and an object of affections, of the unseen agent of gene- 
rous and benevolent deeds, even though the few cubic feet 
of substance which compose his form, and any visible 



51 

manifestation connected with them, should never reach 
him? So accustomed are we to treat abstractions as 
realities, that it seldom occurs to us that the existence of 
the historical personage is the more doubtful, because the 
historian has not supplied us with the means of denning 
his visible form. To which of the two is Caesar more a 
reality; to the Roman slave who saw a human form, 
resembling many others, in the triumphal car and toga ; 
or to the reader of to-day, who has followed the accom- 
plished, vain, and ambitious conqueror from the plains 
of Gaul to the foot of Pompey's statue ? Nor need we 
appeal so far as to history. Are not those unseen ones, 
whose thoughts alone, reaching to us, stir up in us a high 
and intense life ; — are they not to us realities a thousand 
times more interesting than the mere visible forms, the 
acquaintances of eye and ear, which cross our every-day 
path? 

What, though our minds be not always tuned to this 
high pitch, and often sink down from abstractions to the 
basis of things material and sensible out of which they 
arise, — they cannot remain there long, but feel gradually 
borne up by their nature into higher action. Not alone 
does the poet or the philosopher seek for the ideal as a 
part of his mind's needful aliment. The peasant and 
the artisan also seek more than the things which they 
see and handle; and catch gladly at those words and 
sounds which give them the glimmering of another kind 
of life, the life of the fantasy. Hence has superstition 
been able to maintain her sway so stoutly in defiance of 
common sense, by allying herself with powers to which 
man by nature owned a grateful and willing allegiance. 
The religious fable or absurdity has been suffered to pass 
unquestioned, for the sake of the grace, faith, or spiritual 
influence by which it has invited men to the action of 
their higher faculties. And possibly this action, even 
when somewhat diseased and in excess, was less injurious 

e2 



52 

than the total death of man's ideal and spiritual nature. 
But cannot reason also form an alliance with this; or 
must we acknowledge that in proportion to the dominion 
of reason, man must restrict himself to the exercise of 
his senses, and admit as fact and reality their acquaint- 
ances alone ? This cannot be ; Nature bids us refuse to 
lower our standard to the capabilities of those whom she 
intended to be mere door-keepers to the mind, and urges 
us to receive all that higher world of ideas which follow 
the impressions of sense, welcoming them as the conge- 
nial companions and best friends of reason. 

Are abstractions, then, delightful realities of the mind 
in its highest exercise ? Then God speaks to us by means 
of our highest faculties; and who would wish that he 
had spoken otherwise ? The being who has senses alone 
goes into nature, and finds only herbs, waters, sky, and 
planets. The being who has also intellect, imagination, 
and affections, cannot see these without finding also the 
Mind of the Universe. 

Doubly pleasing does nature become when reason has 
once satisfied us that she is authorized to respond to the 
heart. The mind of the First Cause speaks to us through 
his works. Matter, inorganic and organic ! How poor 
and mean nature seemed when this was all we could see 
in her ! but now we begin to penetrate farther, and find 
that these forms were but the outward expression of 
something higher than themselves. The loneliness felt 
amidst heaps of insentiency, however splendidly arrayed, 
disappears as soon as we begin to distinguish the voice 
of Intelligence which speaks through them. Mind caused 
them, exists amidst them, and speaks by them. Each 
object becomes more than a spectacle ; it is the medium 
of communication from a mind. The wild flower which 
we scarcely notice, the satellite which we disregard 
amidst the brilliancy of the sky, would tell us volumes, 
if they were all in the external world to which we had 



53 

access. But from the stores of the Parent Cause these 
would be but penurious epistles ; and he conveys his 
meaning in a richly variegated earth, and a boundless 
firmament. 

With this Scripture we may be well content ; and know- 
ing that here it is appointed for us to learn all we can 
and ought to know of God, his nature, and his will, 
cease to regret the loss of that strange existence which 
made a capricious covenant with Abraham, or of the 
voice which delivered to Moses moral precepts, inter- 
mingled with directions concerning the fringe of the 
tabernacle and knobs of the candlestick, or of the Being 
who declared himself at one time long suffering and gra- 
cious, and at another denounced heavy punishments for 
sparing the wives and children of the vanquished. A 
more refined conception followed these, in so far as man's 
expanding mind began to catch the tone and spirit of 
nature. But nature is more durable than man's words, 
whether conveyed through other men's memories, or by 
paper and parchment. We can appeal to her direct, 
without help from any translator or expounder, besides 
our own head and heart. The God whom she proclaims 
is a certainty in a far higher degree than any God revealed 
to us through distant records, for the pledges of his ex- 
istence are the things around us and within us every 
moment, free from all suspicion of forgery, delusion, or 
imposture. 

And what does this elder, but ever fresh, Scripture 
teach concerning the character of the Creating Mind ? Is 
there aught in it, besides intelligence, which betokens 
kindred to our own ? How does the intelligence employ 
itself, and towards what objects does it tend ? That of 
man is combined with other faculties and tastes, and 
exercises itself in the directions to which, these point. 
He loves to explore the properties of figure and number, 
and to make these properties subservient to his purposes 



54 

in combining material things ; he delights in sweet sounds 
and graceful forms, and deems it no small part of reason's 
task to promote the gratification of the eye and the ear ; 
and above all, his intelligence finds a necessity of being 
in action of some kind amongst the material things which 
surround it. Does the Divine Intelligence resemble the 
human in any of these respects ? or does it operate to- 
wards objects altogether incomprehensible to man, foreign 
to his tastes, bearing no parallel to his aims, and no rela- 
tion to his faculties ? A range through nature soon leads 
to the pleasing discovery, that the Creative Intelligence 
is combined also with something corresponding to the 
senses, tastes, and imagination of man. He finds not a 
strange and repulsive creation which jars harshly upon 
his own nature, but one which accords wonderfully with 
it. To whatever side he turns, nature presents something 
to harmonize with his faculties, and he feels himself in a 
father-land. Earth and skies reveal a conceptive Painter, 
a skilful Musician, a deep Geometrician, a sure Archi- 
tect, and, whether in these or other forms, an ever-active 
mind.* 

In some things mankind cannot approach the perfec- 
tion displayed in nature. The problem of the three bo- 

* Man appears to have certain determinate faculties, which may 
be modified by the action of external things, but can neither be 
entirely created nor destroyed by it. Therefore the pleasure which 
he takes in nature indicates an agreement or harmony between his 
appetencies and external things, and not the necessary derivation 
of the former from the latter. Persons who have been excluded 
from their birth from natural scenery, experience a lively pleasure 
when at last introduced to it. It is quite conceivable that man 
and external nature should have been constituted so that the latter 
might produce an unpleasing effect upon the whole or the greater 
part of the faculties of the former ; therefore the agreement or 
harmony alluded to, unless we call it a coincidence, demands some 
explanation. 



55 

dies occupied the ablest mathematicians of Europe for 
many years, and Clairaut was only able to solve it ap- 
proximately. Yet how much more complicated must be 
the problems to be solved in order to balance millions 
of systems !* With respect to sounds and colours also, 
the artificial seldom equal the natural in sweetness or 
vividness. But in some cases, as in the collocation of 
the parts of a landscape, or in the combination of sounds 
into a concert, art seems able to improve upon nature. 
Remembering that man himself is a part of the latter, 
we should hence conclude, that, in some cases, God ex- 
hibits a higher degree of skill out of us, and in other 
cases through us. 

Whether it be true or not, that in some particular 
cases man is able to do better than what he finds already 
done in nature, the general fact, that the material crea- 
tion is such as to delight his faculties, remains indisput- 
able ; and, looking at the whole, few would admit that 
any human mind could ever produce such a magnificent 
and beautiful conception. There is a boldness or free- 
dom of style in the Divine works which strikes the 
imagination, independently of size and extent. God is 
not a formalist who draws only in parallel lines, perfect 
curves, and similar figures. This he can do where it 
conduces to utility, as in the cellular tissues, the spider's 

* The hypothesis, that the matter scattered throughout the hea- 
vens must, during eternity, have time to fall into all possible com- 
binations, and therefore must at last hit upon one of the few which 
would balance the universe, although not absolutely impossible, 
is too violent to be admitted, without strong support from facts. 
No record, either through intelligent beings or material things, has 
reached us of that enormous period when Nature was making her 
unsuccessful experiments. The earliest geological epochs appear 
to be parts of a regular plan of progression. The hypothesis re- 
ferred to is totally unsupported by that which forms the basis of 
the argument for an Intelligent Cause, viz. fact and analogy. 



56 

web,, the cells of bees, and in the members of the body 
which exist in pairs. He can be most minute in regu- 
larity, for the earth never varies a minute in the time of 
its rotation, nor does the radius vector of any planet 
describe an inch more or less of area in equal times. 
Yet, where no purpose of utility appears to be promoted 
by regularity, he prefers the variety of seeming chance. 
The stars are scattered throughout the firmament, so 
that no area in space can be matched with its dupli- 
cate ; yet who does not confess that the confusion which 
allows the imagination to form the wild group of Orion, 
the Centaur, the Lion, and all their fellow mystic forms, 
emblems of scientific facts, or representations of the fa- 
bles which sprung from the fancy of the young human 
race, — that this wild collocation exceeds in sublime effect 
the most regular corniced temple-ceiling into which the 
Divine Artificer might have marked out the sky ? And 
who that sees from some eminence the beautiful confu- 
sion of rocks, sea, meadows, and woods, assembled in no 
definable proportion or plan, would wish that the De- 
signer had preferred to arrange the components of his 
landscapes with the regularity of tesselated pavements ? 

But this is mere trifling, compared with the deeper 
query which the heart longs to put to nature. Is the 
universal mind Ormusd or Ahriman ? For, with all that 
she has yet said, he might still be an all-powerful refined 
tormentor. The wise and skilful we may admire ; but 
the benevolent we confide in and love. There has 
been, and is, much that seems evil ; when she is clearly 
understood, what will be the final translation of her 
sentence — that good, evil, a compromise, or a neutra- 
lity, is the rule of the universe ? If the Persian had 
been told so much of the future, as that the progress 
of knowledge would prove it impossible for two prin- 
ciples to reign jointly in the universe, since each suc- 
cessive investigation of nature shewed more and more 



51 

the unity of design, from the lowest gulf of the Caspian 
to the star which hardly twinkles beside Aldebaran, how 
would he desire to ask the further question, which of the 
two principles would advancing knowledge recognize as 
the predominant, and whether Ormusd or Ahriman 
would be dissipated by science into a non-entity ! He 
might, perhaps, have anticipated the answer, but with 
some trembling. Three thousand years enable us to 
anticipate the final decision of nature with tranquillity. 
The study of matter and mind has proved, that so much 
of what was called evil is the necessary means of pre- 
venting the destruction of our physical frame, or of pro- 
moting the life of our moral nature, that we look securely 
for the further results of science as to what remains of 
evil unexplained.* Since the more intently men have 
looked at nature, the more of evil has appeared to change 
into goodness of a different hue, we must anticipate that 
a perfect revelation will shew the seeming blots which 
remain, to be in reality harmonizing features in a scene of 
beneficence. Thus relieved with respect to these darker 
passages of nature, we are at liberty to rejoice in her 
general clear and easy language of joyous suns, smiling 
earth, bodies replete with agreeable sensations, and sights 
and tones innumerable which breathe peace or delight. 
Thus in abundant eloquence she declares that neither ma- 
levolence nor indifference has presided over the creation 
of all things, but that benevolence was, in some unac- 
countable way, the predominant attribute of the Causing 
Mind. 

Might it not have been otherwise? Is there any 
latent self-contradiction in the supposition that the order of 
things might have been such as to give as much pain, or as 
little pleasure, as was consistent with continuation ? — that 
life and reproduction should have been enforced by pain, 

* See Combe's Constitution of Man. 



58 

rather than persuaded by pleasure ; and that a miserable 
world, or a dull world, should have been compelled to 
drag on for millions of ages, in order to supply a neces- 
sary link of the great whole ? It is conceivable : why 
was it not so ? We cannot tell ; but we can rejoice in 
the actual reality. A common-place phrase is it, — the 
beneficent order of things. But to Adam, just created, 
it would have been a thrilling discovery. Pause some- 
times, all sons of Adam, and rejoice to think upon the 
good luck, or fortunate necessity, or whatever other name 
seems best to suit the incomprehensible fate which made 
goodness predominant in the universe which holds you. 

The creating Intelligence, which all nature had re- 
vealed, is also beneficent. Delightful discovery! Then 
can man repose securely and trust implicitly. For the rest, 
his weak understanding need not perplex itself more than 
for diversion and exercise. When, strong and active, his 
mind is restless for employment, let it seek farther into 
the nature of God and the destiny of man ; but when, 
weary and troubled, it needs repose, let it sink contented 
upon faith — the clear and easy faith which a beautiful 
universe has revealed, a benevolent God. What is there 
further which will not readily grow out of this ? From 
this one article, reason will easily deduce as many as the 
varying circumstances of each individual may require, and 
more than thirty-nine of good comfort will be found, con- 
firmed by nature to be of sound orthodoxy. 

Benevolence is one of the characteristics which most 
please us in the human mind. By examining the works 
of nature, it appears to have been a principle inherent in 
the First Cause. May we not, then, hope that some of 
the other sentiments of the human mind have in the 
First Cause something responding to them? Whether 
the sentiment be a primitive faculty of the mind, or 
whether it grows out of its constitution acted upon by 
other things, it must have had in the original Source of 



59 

mind a cause answering to it. If mind could have pro- 
ceeded from nothing but mind, then the qualities of mind 
must have proceeded from a cause having some kindred 
or resembling qualities. Benevolence could not have 
been made a component of human nature by a cause es- 
sentially malevolent. Then also justice, sense of duty, 
honour, affection, have something responding to them in 
the cause of man's mind.* 

Thus do our mental powers, ranging through nature, 
discover an existence which rises in sublimity and interest 
the more they look upon it. By steady contemplation 
the wondrous abstraction assumes form. The great idea is 
filled up ; whilst the reality of external nature perpetually 
reminds us that we behold, not our own reflection, but 
an independent existence.f One by one, qualities throng 
upon it, until it becomes an entity readily appreciable by 
thought. It becomes a personality so real, that imagina- 
tion is almost tempted to add more. The Creative Intel- 
ligence, the mighty Geometrician, and conceptive Artist, 
is also Benevolent ; and if so much as all this, he can surely 
understand and appreciate whatever else enters into the 
composition of humanity. Then may virtue, endeavour- 
ing to imitate him, hope that there is in the universe a 

* It might be objected, that this kind of argument would also 
prove that there are counterparts of man's bad qualities in the 
Divine Mind. But modern philosophy tends to prove, that the 
mind has no original bad qualities. Vices are the results of quali- 
ties in themselves good, and in harmony with nature, but mis- 
directed, or in excess, owing to defective knowledge. It seems, 
indeed, not at all improbable, that all primitive faculties in the 
human mind have some counterpart in the First Cause, although 
the manifestation of them should be different, owing to its different 
mode of existence. 

t Dante relates, in the Paradise, that the Deity appeared to 
him under the figure of three circles, forming an iris, whose lively 
colours generated each other ; but that, looking steadily upon the 
dazzling light, he saw only his own figure. 



60 

secret response of approbation,, more sure and discerning 
than that of men ; then may humble unseen worth, per- 
severing from a sense of duty in painful struggles, which 
the ordination of progress has rendered inevitable to many 
children of earth, retire frequently to seek refreshment 
from sympathies in nature, compassion, exhortation, and 
encouragement, expressed in tones which the ear is now 
attuned to perceive ; and if sometimes, stimulated into 
more keen perception by sorrow, the soul realizes the 
awful consoling Presence so nearly, that it more than me- 
ditates, — can reason condemn ? 

Honoured be the spirits which have anticipated such 
religion of nature, and depicted the Cause of the uni- 
verse in this attractive form. The lower feelings found 
in the godhead a mere Jupiter Tonans, a vindictive and 
jealous tyrant of heaven, the partial protector of a family 
or chosen nation. But more enlarged thought and higher 
feeling described him as the King and Father of men, Ju- 
piter greatest and best. Especially honoured be he who 
loved to contemplate, and to address, the unseen Mind 
as the Father in heaven, hearing and having compassion 
on all men ; and who taught men to avail themselves of 
this refuge for sorrow. Whatever else he were, he was 
one of those who have helped to raise and refine, as well 
as to strengthen, human nature. Philosophy sitting 
calmly in the schools, or walking at ease in the groves, 
could not do all that men require ; the despised Galilean, 
with his religion of sorrow, gave strength where philosophy 
left them weak, and completed the armour of the mind. 
It was reserved for a persecuted man of a persecuted 
nation to open the divine depths of sorrow, and to direct 
men towards the hidden riches of their nature in abysses 
where, at the first entrance, all appeared barren gloom. 

The various systems of religion, or schools of philoso- 
phy, which have pre-eminently attracted men's attention, 
have all contributed something to a complete moral 



61 

creed. Each has brought into view some great principle 
which, although not unknown, had never before been 
placed in so striking a light. Jesus Christ has added to 
philosophy the principle of regarding the Supreme Mind 
as an object of the affections. In suffering and adversity 
chiefly, this principle comes to be felt as a valuable part 
of philosophy. In these conditions, it may be questioned 
if any system, without this, can produce perfect tran- 
quillity, free from apathy. Acquiescence in the decrees 
of fate or necessity is not enough for a being com- 
pounded of imaginations and affections, as well as intel- 
lect ; the principle suits his whole nature, when raised 
into submission to the will of a beneficent paternal mind. 
In this, Jesus wants not the attestation of supernatural 
voices and signs; he has held up to men a doctrine 
which nature, when earnestly appealed to, fully sanctions. 
Does the adorer still sometimes sigh for a contempla- 
tion of the Deity, requiring less strain upon his intel- 
lectual nature, and exclaim, O that the Invisible would 
become flesh, and dwell among us, so that we might see 
his form and hear his voice, full of grace and truth ! or 
that, at least, he would condescend so far to the weakness 
of beings in whom sense forms a large part, as to send 
amongst them some emanating intelligence, his likeness 
and representative, in a human form ! Reflect, thou art 
asking only what he has already done. Man's mind 
came out of the all-comprehending cause. Some exam- 
ples of it exhibit, in no low degree, the attributes which 
are revealed in creation. In the good and the wise of 
earth, behold many Incarnations of deity. Be thyself 
one of them. Wherever thou findest the pure, the ener- 
getic, and the love-worthy, fall down in thy own mind 
and adore the god-like. In this accessible form thou 
wilt frequently find the godhead walking in the garden, 
joining at the social board, talking with thee face to face. 
Avail thyself freely of this familiar channel of recognition 



62 

and adoration ; by love and reverence for the moral, pay 
to the Source of Good an easy daily praise ; nor fear, by 
worship of the God on earth, to disparage the God in 
heaven. 

The history of six thousand years exhibits continual 
stretchings of man after the invisible ; and according to 
the state of mind and manners, these have manifested 
themselves in superstition, fanaticism, religion, or philoso- 
phy. Away with the cant that the idea of a God is only 
the work of priestcraft; the priests might have availed 
themselves of what was already in the mind of man, but 
no priests could have artifice enough to plant there, and 
cause to grow for ages, what was totally uncongenial to it. 
Men would have risen sooner against each priestly annoy- 
ance, but that they felt the power of unseen realities 
speaking to them in a voice more forcible than that of bulls 
and ordinances, — the voice of their reason and of their 
inmost wants, hopes, and affections. And it has been 
the art of priests to appear as the allies and visible repre- 
sentatives of these potent influences, and to pretend to 
minister to those wants of men, which by slow degrees 
they learn to satisfy direct from nature's fountain. Yet 
do the strange shapes which the religious sentiment has 
so frequently assumed, all contain a truth which compels 
lamentation or laughter to end in some kind of reve- 
rence. He may be wanting in perceptions, who can refrain 
from a smile at some of the abrupt passages which the 
mixture called human nature has often made in religion 
as well as other things, from the sublime to the ridiculous ; 
and especially at the impotent conclusion, of the highest 
aspirations of man being reduced to the poor common- 
place of subserving the necessity which some appear to 
be under of imposing, and others of being imposed upon. 
But he is equally or more wanting in perceptions, who 
can see only these in the history of religion, nor discern, 
amidst various absurd disguises invented by human folly, 



63 

an identical fair form of truth, of which the reality and 
character are spoken to by the constitution of man's 
mind and of nature. The conceptions of Deity in rude 
ages must necessarily be lower than in periods of mental 
refinement ; yet, in many of them, we may find the alloy 
to consist of sentiments which, though not the highest, 
are neither unworthy nor unnatural. The most philoso- 
phic religionist may feel at times the necessity of bring- 
ing the Universal Mind, as it were, into that compara- 
tively narrow circle wherein the most active feelings 
generally find their play, and contemplating it in re- 
ference to family, friends, or country. By him the ap- 
pellations the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the 
God who hath led our fathers through the wilderness, 
will be regarded as happy modes of bringing the Mighty 
Incorporeal within the compass of a rude nation's affec- 
tions and comprehension. Nor will he refuse to lend 
himself to the associations which the history of Israel, 
their poetry and music, and also that of Christendom, 
have connected with the name of the God of Judah, and 
King of Zion. In all the forms not absolutely revolting 
or ludicrous, in which the domestic or patriotic feelings 
of tribes and nations have allied themselves with the reli- 
gious, will the benignant philosopher find matter for 
sympathy and approval, rather than of derision ; he will 
enter into the associations of time and place which have 
rendered such forms interesting and powerful, relax his 
abstract truths into these poetical and familiar represen- 
tations, and regard the propensity to fall into them as an 
amiable, rather than absurd, trait in imperfect human 
nature. 

But, although poetical, historical, and antiquarian in- 
terest may preserve, in different nations, partial repre- 
sentations of the Deity for a long time after the belief in 
the Divine sanction of such representations has ceased, — 
the tendency of advancing knowledge must be gradually 



64 

to abandon these imperfect conceptions, and to prefer 
that infinitely more enlarged one which progressive 
thought opens. As the name of Israel is to us now, so 
will Christendom and Christianity be to our descendants 
of future generations. As to us the God of Abraham, 
and the God of Israel, appear too limited designations 
for the Divine Existence, so to them will appear the 
names of the Father of Christ, and the God of the Christ- 
ians. All representations of the Deity depending upon 
the preservation of human records will be felt to be com- 
paratively unsatisfactory and unsubstantial. But Nature 
will always be a present grand reality, and the Intelligence 
which presides throughout nature must be an ever-present 
reality also. The God of Nature, revealed in greater 
clearness by each step of physical and mental science, is 
He whom the Jew, the Christian, the Mahometan, and 
the Hindoo will at last unite to worship. In the pleni- 
tude of philosophic charity, which future centuries are to 
develope, these may all, in turn, join each other in the 
peculiar ancient worship of each. Where painting, po- 
etry, or music, may have consecrated the old, imperfect, 
and partial conceptions of each nation, the enlightened 
religionist of after-times will find no impediment to his 
free sympathy in the reminiscences of his neighbours. 
The Hindoo scholar may repeat with pleasure the praises 
of the God of Israel, preserved in the relics of Hebrew 
poetry ; the Mahometan musician will not be offended at 
finding the Deity continually represented as the Father 
of Jesus Christ in the finest devotional compositions oi 
Christendom ; whilst the Jewish or Christian poet will 
treat with equal candour the strains in honour of Brama. 
The secondary feelings connected with the religious pe- 
culiarities of each clime will be treated, on all sides, with 
that respectful consideration which true philosophy in- 
spires; whilst all will rejoice together in then respective 
emancipations from the more galling fetters of their sup- 



65 

posed Special Revelations, and meet in full and free 
communion of thought on the common ground of Na- 
ture's Revelation. Religion will at last, like Science, 
become a point of union, instead of a bar of separation, 
to the minds of different nations. When it is found that 
the real Bible, or book in which God reveals himself, has 
been given equally to all, and that he has already taken 
care to place it in clear print before every nation, there 
can be no room for the overweening assumption of ex- 
clusive possession of divine truth ; and that generous zeal 
for others' spiritual welfare, which, in a great measure, 
wastes itself in misdirected missionary exertions, will find 
an aim more rational and more practicable, in interna- 
tional efforts to promote moral, intellectual, and social 
improvement. 



The distinction between God's works and God's word 
no longer exists. They are the same. His works are 
his word. No longer need the mind which seeks its 
Creator be cramped within the limits of a written volume. 
O thou, whose earliest conceptions of a creative intelli- 
gence awakened by the sight of a wonderful world, and, 
seeking for further expansion, have been directed to the 
so-called word of God as the proper fountain of this high 
knowledge, where this sublimest ardour was to be satis- 
fied, and the great idea fully developed, — hast thou never 
experienced something like disappointment, when, turning 
wearily over many pages of the boasted revelation, thou 
hast found but little to respond to thy nascent desires of 
truth, and timidly, half self-accusing, asked thyself, Can 
this really be that loudly extolled book of Revelation, 
which is to instruct men fully concerning God and his 
ways ? Is it indeed so superior to the instruction of nature, 
that it deserves to be called pre-eminently the Word of 
God ? I find here and there high thoughts and beautiful 
conceptions, which shew that between the Nile and the 

F 



66 

Euphrates, as well as elsewhere, men possessed a nature 
capable of being moved occasionally to the contemplation 
of the mighty Cause of heaven and earth ; but do these 
ancient writers really impart knowledge concerning him 
beyond the reach of all other sages, and speak in strains 
unequalled by any other muse ?* Alas ! they seldom sus- 
tain my mind long in that high region which it was seek- 
ing; but drag it down into an earthly atmosphere of 
low trifling thoughts, petty local interests, and individual 
or national resentments. This, the book to which stupen- 
dous Nature itself was only the preface ! — which the Cre- 
ator of sun and skies has thought it worth while to attest 
by special messages and inspirations ! Neither its genea- 
logies, histories, nor poems, satisfy my want. The spirit 
of adoration seems to be, by long perusal of this volume, 
excluded from the great temple of the universe, and com- 
pressed into the holy ark of Israel, or into an upper cham- 
ber at Jerusalem. Can this book really be the highest 
field of human study and thought ? There must be some 
mistake. 

* Compare Psalms xix. and Isaiah xl. with Young's Night 
Thoughts, chap. ix. : — 

" Where ends this mighty building ! Where begin 

The suburbs of creation 1 Where the wall 

Whose battlements look o'er into the vale 

Of non-existence 1 Nothing's strange abode ! 

Say, at what point of space Jehovah dropp'd 

His slackened line, and laid his balance by; 

Weighed worlds, and measured infinite, no more ! 

Where rears his terminating pillar high 

Its extra-mundane head] and says to gods, 

In characters illustrious as the sun, 

' I stand, the plan's proud period ; I pronounce 

The work accomplished ; the creation closed : 

Shout, all ye gods ! nor shout, ye gods, alone ; 

Of all that lives, or, if devoid of life, 

That rests, or rolls, ye heights and depths, resound !' " 



67 

Rejoice, and set thy mind free ; there has been a great 
mistake. The book, as well as thyself, was injured by 
the false pretensions set up on its behalf; and the work- 
ings of the Human mind in remote ages, in themselves 
deeply interesting, rendered ridiculous by being extolled 
into oracles of the Divine. Cease to ~weary thyself in 
following Israel through the desert, and in pondering 
each supposed weighty sentence of prophets and apostles. 
Neither Moses nor Samuel, Isaiah nor Zechariah, not 
Jesus, nor Paul, nor John, can speak more of God than 
they themselves have learned from the sources which he 
has placed within the reach of all, nature and man's own 
mind. But look up and around, and say if man may not 
be well satisfied with these; and if in Orion and the 
Pleiades, in the green earth and its copious productions, 
and especially in the Godlike Human Mind itself, mani- 
fested in art, science, poetry, and action, God has not 
provided eloquent and intelligible evangelists. 

True, they tell me that he is ; but his Will ! where 
shall I find this, if the book of revelation be renounced ; 
where find rules of conduct of sufficient sanction to 
render the mind free and trustful in its course through 
life ? Reflecting man cannot live a mere animal, catching 
whatever good fate or chance throws to him from day 
to day ; he must ask himself sometimes, what is the End 
of his being, and is he living for that End ? Different 
lines of conduct seem to lie open before him ; which shall 
he choose, — virtue or vice, benevolent or selfish gratifica- 
tion? The omnipotent Designer must have intended 
man to fulfil some part in his great plan : if man could 
penetrate into the divine designs, and learn what this plan 
was, or at least obtain a word of guidance from the Cre- 
ator's lips, he might proceed surely. Conformity to the 
will of an arranger so wise as he who made the world, 
must be for the best interests of man and of all things. 

Nor will this question be asked of Nature in vain. 

f 2 



68 

Through her God speaks his will, as well as his existence, 
in language of inimitable force and clearness. Here also 
it is the language of facts. He speaks his commands to 
man in a manner so impressive, that they cannot be neg- 
lected, whether they be recognized as his or not. This 
emphatic language is Pleasure and Pain. By the former 
he persuades, by the latter he deters. " Do this" is 
spoken so that none can refuse; "thus far shalt thou 
go," and "thou shalt not," are enforced in sentences 
which the deaf must hear, viz., in Nature's sharp penalties 
for disobedience. 

Here then is the true Table of God's Commandments ; 
the natural consequences of actions; the happiness or 
misery which result respectively from different lines of 
conduct, according to the constitution of ourselves and 
of things around : a table written, indeed, with the ringer 
of God, but which no Moses can throw down and break; 
for it is interwoven with the universe itself, and shares its 
stability. Let him who desires to know the will of God 
study well this great table, and in no particular will he 
find it deficient or ambiguous. 

It is true that this Table is so constructed as to teach 
by experience rather than by warning. Each forbidden 
fruit does not prevent our tasting it by sharp pains to the 
palate ; but by after-pain it declares itself to be within 
the prohibited list. Man seems thus to be designedly 
exposed to some evil. Unlike an over-fond parent, who 
fears lest her charge should receive the slightest hurt, 
Nature gives mankind a rough education, and allows them 
unscrupulously to receive many hurts before they attain 
their majority. Man's infancy of six thousand years has 
abounded with disasters ; yet Nature has looked on un- 
moved, tranquilly confident in the ultimate success of 
her plan ; in evidence of which we see she now points to 
her charge, upon the whole healthy and vigorous, not- 
withstanding his past troubles, rendered partially wise 



69 

and reflective in consequence of them, and shewing a 
strength of constitution in body and mind which allows 
the hope of a manhood of perfection. 

Is Nature really unkind in preferring this rigorous 
system of teaching by experience ? and do we wish that 
God had rather made her the minutely solicitous nurse, 
always warning in time, to prevent our incurring the least 
physical or moral hurt ? Then we might have been en- 
tirely unscathed by evil, and for ever safe in leading- 
strings. But whence should we obtain all those things 
which seem to be the necessary results of hard experi- 
ence alone ; — patience, fortitude, circumspection, activity 
of thought, and the full appreciation of pleasure ? All these 
truly are worth something, and help much to make man 
the being whom we love and respect. Perhaps they are 
equal in value to that secure invulnerability which we 
might have had in the total absence of evil,— perhaps 
more. Should we dare to risk the loss of this moral 
grandeur, and all that results from it, by accepting, in 
exchange for this world, one in which evil had never 
been permitted to appear, — a world already cleared of evil 
for man, instead of one which he is to clear for himself? 
The choice would be too hazardous ; we might lose more 
than we should gain : possibly it was neither oversight 
nor want of benevolence in the Creator, that he allowed 
the trees both of Good and of Evil to grow within the 
reach of unrestrained man. 

Wonderful and ingenious is the method devised for 
guiding man into the course which he was intended to 
fulfil, and at the same time allowing him that range of 
faculties and action, which contributes to the interest and 
greatness of his being ! Not an enchaining automaton-pro- 
ducing instinct ; but Pleasure or Happiness attached to 
some actions, Pain or Misery to others. How simple the 
contrivance! yet what a vast machinery of sensations 
in man and adaptations to external nature did it require ! 



70 

The Natural Consequences of actions become, then, the 
Scriptures of God's will concerning the conduct of man. 
Deeply interesting is the study of this volume, for we 
read it in every action of our lives, and in all that men 
and nations enjoy or suffer. Even he who will not 
himself attend to the meaning, becomes an illustration of 
it to others. But with the happiness and misery of life 
the sense must glide more or less into every mind. 

Why have mankind profited so little by this volume, 
that from generation to generation they continue to read 
again and again the same dark pages of immoderate in- 
dulgence, unrestrained passions, and their attendant evils, 
without going on to those abundant pages of pleasurable 
experiences to which these difficult passages were to be 
merely the preparation? Whence this strange inatten- 
tion ? From men's inadvertence to the deep and solemn 
object of all the Pains and Pleasures to which their minds 
and bodies are subject ; viz., that these are to make known 
to them God's will, and guide them into the course 
designed for them. But they have supposed pains and 
pleasures to be accidents, or mere arbitrary distributions, 
and have looked every where else for the declaration of 
God's will ; in dreams, or visions, or special messengers 
from heaven, or supernatural inspirations, or volumes of 
human compilation pretending to contain the precious 
oracles. Man's attention has been so engrossed with these 
loud boasting, counterfeit revelations, that he has neg- 
lected Nature, although ever speaking with her own quiet 
impressiveness through his own feelings and the order of 
things. 

But now lift up thine eyes, free from those illusions which 
have been so long confusing the sight of mankind, and 
devote thy hitherto misdirected energies to discover 
God's will in his own revelation of it. Here also he 
adopts a magnificent mode of teaching, the feelings of 
man and the order of events. Thou wilt soon learn his 



71 

style in this matter, as well as in the revelation of his 
existence. Tis easier, after all, than the study of Koran, 
Shasters, Zendavesta, or Bible. Thou wilt sooner dis- 
cover the tendency of thine actions, and the pleasurable- 
ness or painfulness of thy own feelings, than the genuine- 
ness and meaning of Hebrew, Greek, or Persic texts. 
Hast thou ever felt delight in the exercise of thy senses, 
in the fragrance of the rose and violet, in autumn's fruits, 
in the freshness of the winding stream beneath over- 
hanging trees, or in the inviting depths of the wood? 
God commands thee to enjoy all this. Hast thou ever 
felt the bodily prostration or mental death following 
upon too long-continued luxurious ease ? Then God 
prohibits this. Hast thou ever found enjoyment in the 
kindly intercourse with men, in the interchange of good 
offices, or in the mutual communication of thought and 
experience, gaiety and wisdom? God commands this. 
Hast thou ever felt misery from yielding to suspicion, 
reserve, distrust, and uncharitableness ? The prohibition 
is clear. Hast thou ever found delight in knowledge, in 
evolving the surprising properties of numbers and quantity, 
in exploring the history of earth and its productions, in 
penetrating the firmament and gaining a bird's-eye view 
of the universe, or in roving through the luxuriance of 
books? All this God sanctions. Or hast thou some- 
times had a sense of a purer delight, and felt the awakening 
of a new and higher life in the love of moral beauty, the 
admiration of noble actions, the feeling of disinterested 
benevolence, the desire to direct all other tastes and powers 
towards the service of mankind, and to imitate the per- 
fection in heaven by doing good to all sentient creatures ? 
If ever thou hast been convinced that from such feelings 
proceed a real and substantial delight, then be sure that 
God approves of these. 

But the sufferers for conscience' sake ! O plausible 
semi-epicurean, what shall we say of these ? This ; — that 



72 

they prefer the higher pleasure to the lower, and would 
not exchange the consciousness of moral worth, of fellow- 
ship with the good, and of closer connexion with more 
than earth, for things, to them, of inferior value. If the 
bargain seem to any too hard, 'tis nature's indication that 
they may rest contented with the secondary grade of 
admiring what they cannot imitate. Yet history shews 
that, whenever occasion has called for it, numbers have 
not been found wanting to rush into the foremost rank 
of Virtue, testifying by their alacrity that some minds are 
so constituted as to find her rewards a reality.* 

With the increasing general improvement of mankind, 
occasions of this kind will be less and less frequent. 
Virtue will not be called upon for those high efforts, in 
which the exaltation of noble feelings must compensate 
for inconvenience, neglect, and suffering. The general 
constitution of human nature indicates that virtue is in- 
tended to co-exist with the enjoyment of the common 
blessings of life. The martyr's reward must be con- 
sidered as an extraordinary provision to meet an extraordi- 
nary case ; but the more tranquil satisfactions of virtue 
will be the more permanent. Those generous spirits 



* The possibility, at least, of a future state, cannot be disproved. 
It is one of the rewards of virtue to reflect, that, in the disposition 
to create and diffuse good, the mind has acquired a high degree of 
resemblance to the Divine nature, and that the likeness may in- 
clude the partaking of its immortality. Thus, although the doc- 
trine of the immortality of the soul be not held as a dogma, the 
contemplation of it may diffuse a high additional interest to man's 
existence ; and this contemplation becomes most earnest and 
pleasing to the virtuous sufferer. 

Every thing which tends to shew that this contemplation is 
natural and necessary to the mind, especially amongst the good, 
tends to prove also the reality of a future state; because the 
health v working of human feelings is not found, in other cases, to 
lead to delusions. 



73 

were made for their age ; but the last times will behold 
a world, not of martyrs, but of happiness-enjoying and 
happiness-giving brethren. 

To study the means of leading a happy life has been 
supposed to be the province of philosophy ; to ascertain 
the will of God, that of religion. They unite. Too long 
has the minister of sacred things stood aloof from the 
moralist, the philosopher, the political economist, as from 
labourers in a different sphere from his own. Too long 
has he considered himself as standing apart, and omitted 
to see that the investigator of Nature in all its provinces 
is really employed in evolving and translating those texts 
of God's mighty book, from which he himself is to draw 
for men ennobling and consoling thoughts. Especially 
is the philosopher, who investigates the means of indi- 
vidual and national happiness, a fellow-labourer with the 
religionist; for he is engaged in exploring the will of 
God where alone it can be found. Behold, then, religion 
and philosophy unite ; they blend into one serene form, 
delightful to both the intellect and the heart. Christian- 
ity, throwing off the contracted look of superstition and 
exclusive saintship, issues from cathedrals and conventi- 
cles, and learns to walk in academic groves and gardens, 
with free unbending air, and in courteous equality with 
all mankind. 

Shades of Athenian Sages ! receive at length with 
friendly arms your Ally of Nazareth : Reason, after 
eighteen centuries of labour, has prepared you all to meet 
each other. Go forth with him into nature's vast lyceum 
in friendly communion, instructing, correcting, ennobling 
each other. Let his devotional nature shed upon your 
researches that high and holy hue which was wanting to 
render philosophy omnipotent over men's affections, as 
well as their understanding ; — the recognition of the Soul 
of the World as a principle bearing close relationship to 
man's heart, and beaming forth through all material things 



74 

to the intellectual eye. Let his benign spirit dissolve your 
proud contempt for the crowd, and dispose you to throw 
open your philosophic stores to all your brethren of 
mankind. And he, in his turn, will hear all that you can 
tell, gathered by deep thought and patient industry from 
the history of nature and of man, nor refuse to search 
further with you into the elder universal scripture for all 
that may reveal God and benefit man. 

These latter ages realize the vision. Plato, Epicurus, 
Cicero, Aristotle, live again in the profound thinkers and 
patient explorers of modern ages. And whatever was 
most admirable in the Galilean lives again in the frank 
benevolence, warm imagination, and unassuming devotion 
of many a generous, as well as religious, spirit. No 
longer need they be practically divided by seeking their 
respective materials of thought in different directions. 
The works and word of God are the same. They will 
find themselves inevitably at each other's side, and, 
exploring in the same field, will soon discover that their 
objects are alike, and that their spirits may therefore join. 

Not altogether fruitless have been the researches 
already made. The moralist has gathered this result 
from the experience of mankind, that moderation in all 
the gratifications of sense, the pursuit of some approved 
object, the cultivation of the mind's higher powers, and 
the employment of those powers in such a manner as to 
bring forth the kindly affections and encourage the love 
of truth and justice, — that conduct framed according to 
these rules is the surest means of procuring a happy life to 
the individual, and, at the same time, of promoting the 
welfare of the race. Let but individual man earnestly seek 
the happiness of his whole nature, and he must of neces- 
sity be working towards the happiness of the race. The 
Creator was not such an inconsistent or imskilful artist 
as to aim at producing general happiness by a system of 
individual misery. The character of the means harmo- 



75 

nizes with that of the end. The orbit of the smallest 
satellite obeys the same laws as the widest circle in which 
systems gravitate. 

The self-love which is interwoven with man's constitu- 
tion will continually impel him to seek happiness of some 
kind, and advancing knowledge will render more and 
more necessary the gratification of his moral and intellec- 
tual powers. The gratification of his whole nature must, 
in the constituted order of things, tend to the perfection 
of the race. We begin then to discover a mighty 
object, worthy of the Framer of nature, in his wonderful 
apparatus of pleasure and pain, hitherto the most puzzling 
part of his vast machinery. From amidst the chaos of 
human error and suffering, we begin to discern glimmer- 
ings which announce an Empyrean of beneficent light. 

Not yet are we out of the darkness; not yet are 
self-love and social universally the same. But the general 
profession, at least, of estimation for the moral sentiments 
and the pleasures derivable from them, allows us to con- 
template the universal verification of the maxim as no 
impossibility. And when men shall all come to recog- 
nize their highest pleasure in diffusing happiness, and shall 
seek the good of all with as much earnestness as their 
own ; when sincerity shall be as common as profession ; 
and the advanced intellect of mankind be subservient 
to equally advanced morality ; — what a luxuriant scene 
of happiness may not be anticipated on this earth! 
General knowledge, united with general benevolence, 
must banish all relics of crime and misery, and mankind 
live a happy brotherhood harmoniously occupied in 
drawing from the earth its copious treasures, exploring 
further into the secrets of creation, and increasing the 
stores of mental enjoyment. What may not man 
become in that happy age ? — a being, perhaps, as superior 
to him of to-day, as the latter is to the preceding occu- 
pants of the planet ; and then may be further developed 



76 

the plan of creation, constituting things so that the hap- 
piness of man should be linked with his moral and 
intellectual progress. Then, whatever joys have been 
imagined of heaven will be realized upon earth, and a 
golden age be found to be the result of knowledge, and 
not of ignorance.* 



* The present now is past, 
And those events that desolate the earth 
Have faded from the memory of time. 

Futurity 

Exposes now its treasure : let the sight 
Renew and strengthen all thy failing hope. 



O happy Earth ! reality of Heaven ! 
To which those restless souls, that ceaselessly 
Throng through the human universe, aspire ; 
Thou consummation of all mortal hope ! 
Thou glorious prize of blindly working will ! 
Whose rays, diffused throughout all space and time, 
Verge to one point, and blend for ever there : 
Of purest spirits thou pure dwelling-place ! 
Where care and sorrow, impotence and crime, 
Languor, disease, and ignorance dare not come : 
O happy Earth, reality of heaven ! 

Genius has seen thee in her passionate dreams, 
And dim forebodings of thy loveliness, 
Haunting the human heart, have there entwined 
Those rooted hopes of some sweet place of bliss 
Where friends and lovers meet to part no more. 
Thou art the end of all desire and will, 
The product of all action ; and the souls 
That by the paths of an aspiring change 
Have reached thy haven of perpetual peace, 
There rest from the eternity of toil 
That framed the fabric of thy perfectness. 

Shelley s Queen Mob. 



77 

If it be acknowledged that any progress has hitherto 
been made in social happiness, it must also be admitted 
that such a state may be indefinitely approached. Thus 
all who labour in any department with a purpose to 
promote the improvement of man, are co-operating in the 
grand scheme of providence, of preparing for the kingdom 
of Heaven upon Earth. Thus in a wider sense, perhaps, 
than he himself imagined, and by the sure means of 
human effort availing itself of nature's resources, are they 
gradually realizing the conception of Jesus of Nazareth, 
and promoting the growth of the mustard-seed, till it 
become a tree in whose branches the birds shall lodge, 
when the earth shall be possessed by the children of God, 
and the Son of Man, perfected human nature, descend to 
reign upon it as from the clouds of heaven. 

Well and nobly, then, do the generous benefactors of 
mankind, of every sect and nation, perform the most 
urgent command of the Prophet of Nazareth, to go forth 
and prepare for the Kingdom of heaven. If he could now 
return to earth, and add to his own generous spirit all 
that reason and science have accumulated since his day, 
would he not be proud to be allowed to call these his dis- 
ciples, and exclaim, — I call you not servants ; ye are my 
friends. That which, in my day, I thought was to be 
brought about by miracles, wonders, and signs, ye are 
accomplishing by the surer means which my Father hath 
provided in his works. More truly are ye thus my dis- 
ciples, than if ye were to proclaim me most loudly Lord, 
and vociferate in my behalf a thousand Heathen or Jewish 
fictions. He that speaketh even against me, it is forgiven 
him ; but he that doeth the will of my Father is my dis- 
ciple and friend. 

And thou, poor child of mortality, who sufferest thy 
full share of the afflictions which form part of the educa- 
tion of the race until they attain this happy majority, — 
canst thou not find part of thy consolation in this glorious 



78 

prospect of thy species ? From thy corner in the dark 
vale of the present, let thy sympathetic affections catch 
a glimpse of the boundless beauty of the future, and 
rejoice in the telescopic view of millions of thyself, with thy 
own thoughts and feelings renewed, basking in happi- 
ness, and free from all that which clouds thy being. Thou 
art one small necessary part of the great train of things 
which is slowly conducting to this consummation ; and 
wouldst thou rather not have been this ? Count thy dis- 
appointments and pains ever so minutely ; is not thy life 
worth something, if it were only for the sake of looking for 
a short time upon the glorious spectacle of the universe, 
and of man's future prospects, with the consciousness 
that thou bearest a part in the great whole ? Thy small 
atom of experience and action contributes to build up that 
immense bank, on which will be based the fertile island 
of man's future perfection. For thy individual self, trust 
that the wisdom and benevolence which appears in the 
general arrangements of creation include all that is 
really wise and benevolent on behalf of individuals. 
The Creating Mind hath seemed to be not devoid of 
what is best in the human; trust, then, that there is 
something in him which looks with peculiar interest 
on patient suffering worth, and that he hath not neglected 
to provide for that which would be the first care of a 
benevolent mortal. Trust in him, and disdain to ask a 
reward. Feelest thou nothing in thee which prompts 
thee both to do and suffer in the cause of mankind, with- 
out any other reward than what thy own breast affords ? 
Importune not God with mercenary requests to add 
another mite to thy treasure in heaven ; but do good, 
hoping for nothing again. Let God be witness that thou 
canst be generous, and do good, without even casting a 
beggar's look to himself for recompence. Nevertheless, 
rejoice that all nature proclaims the Creator of sympa- 
thizing nature with every generous spirit ; and thus learn 



\ 79 
to see in all that is serene and lovely in earth and skies 
the approving smile of heaven. 

Fear not, then, to regard this earth as the appointed 
sphere of man's chief thoughts, exertions, and interests. 
To enjoy and promote happiness on this planet is the 
simple and pleasing obligation laid upon him by the 
Creator through the irresistible voice of his own consti- 
tution. If he obey nature, and frame his whole conduct 
according to her easy command, developed in details as 
enlightened intellect may suggest, he is sure to be pro- 
moting the end of his being. Man is no exception to the 
rule of animated existence ; the work for which he was 
created, he is also impelled to perform by nature's pleasing 
enforcements. Away with the glooms of false religion, 
austerities, seclusions, useless self-denials, and voluntary 
martyrdoms : God, through nature, commands man to 
lead a happy life. Obey God thyself, and assist others 
to obey him. In alternate study, action, business, sport, 
or repose, regulated according to the index of under- 
standing placed in thyself for the purpose, let the consci- 
ousness of thy pleasing obedience diffuse a perpetual 
sunshine over the path of life. Indulge thyself especially, 
as far as it is given thee, in the enjoyment which God 
himself seems to delight in, of creating happiness. And 
when the foreseen signal of departure arrives, give a 
glance of contented retrospection on a well-spent and 
well-enjoyed life, welcome the new comers into thy 
place, and sink peacefully into nature's arms. 

More is there than this? Nature is silent. Enough 
has she given man to occupy him on earth ; she with- 
draws not yet the veil from what lies beyond, but bids 
him wait in calm implicit faith. Or if, pressed urgent- 
ly by the affections which she herself has implanted in 
him, man seems to acquire a right to some answer, and 
demands if the friend of many years is now really no 
more than a remembrance, — she points with quiet signi- 



80 

ficance to man's own heart, and to her own continual 
lesson, that the creator of that heart is good. Man takes 
consolation from the hint : amongst the white memorials 
of mortality he finds thought still pleasing, though so- 
lemn and severe, and, amidst yew and cypress shades, 
catches animating glimpses of the remote bright stars 
and serene heaven. Spirits of the wise and good! no- 
blest work of all creation ! are ye not worth preserving 
in the sight of God ? The wisdom and benevolence which 
shine forth in all that we can already see of the universe, 
suggest, that for you there is still some place to occupy, 
and some work to be done, in the immense regions of the 
unseen. 



Nature thus can never fail to speak philosophy and 
religion to those who intently seek her ; and to her great 
revelation must all mankind ultimately recur. 

The various existing religions, in so far as they are 
based upon fictitious revelations, lose authority by every 
addition made to man's knowledge and powers of thought ; 
numbers must, therefore, fall off from every sect into 
the increasing multitude of those who seek for truth in 
Nature, and admit the authority of her volume alone. 

If names be necessary, let THEISM compendiously 
express the opinions of those who seek God in his works 
alone. 

Of these, many, from attachment to the faith of their 
forefathers, from respect for the man who, in an early 



81 

age, breathed forth so much of the pure spirit of religion 
and benevolence, and from reverence for that faith which, 
when viewed apart from the vices of its professors, has 
done much to humanize mankind, — may wish to retain 
the name of Christian. There is no incongruity in the 
junction. Christ was a Theist, inasmuch as he drew 
much of his doctrine from his own observation of God's 
works. And the Theist who imbibes the love of God 
and of man from the same source, often finds himself 
almost unconsciously adopting the words of Christ. Let 
CHRISTIAN THEISM then express the feelings of him, 
who, whilst he admits no authority above that of man's 
reason, and no revelation besides that of nature, yet 
listens to and honours one of the best expounders of God 
and Nature in the Man of Nazareth. 

Theists of every nation, Christian, Jew, Mahometan, 
or Chinese, can meet upon common ground. Whatever 
minor predilection each may entertain for his own most 
eminent teacher or prophet, whether Christ, Mahomet, 
Moses, or Confucius, their great principle is the same, — 
to seek the knowledge of the Universal Mind, and rules for 
the guidance of man, in the great volume stretched out 
before all men. And when men come generally to dis- 
cover that all have been thus set on a level for the ac- 
quisition of this knowledge, religion, instead of being 
allied with ignorance, exclusiveness, and dogmatism, will 
be found in closest union with modesty, benevolence, 
and science. No longer will it be supposed to consist in 
absurd tales and incomprehensible mysteries, but it will 
be the expression of Nature's highest truths, and the 
hymn ascending from a grateful Earth to a beneficent 
Heaven. 



82 



APPENDIX. 



Page 11. — The name which, in reference to the future kingdom, was 
assumed by him. 

It is generally agreed by Christian commentators that the word Christ, 
XfKrro?, signifies anointed, and is synonymous with the Hebrew or Syriac 
Messias, derived from maschach, to anoint. 

Martinii Lexicon Philologicum : — " Xjhc-toj is the participle from Xpw, 
in the same way as unctus, from ungo. Irenaeus, I. 3, cap. 20: 'In 
Christi nomine subauditur qui unxit, et ipse unctus est, et ipsa unctio,' &c. 
Messias is a Syriac word with a Greek termination/' 

Stephani Thesaurus on the word X^ro<; : — " Our Saviour is pre-eminently 
designated by this name in the sense known to the Jews, since he was, in 
truth, Priest, Prophet, and King. For, amongst them, those three classes 
of men alone used to be anointed with sacred oil, as appears from Levi- 
ticus xvi. 10, which treats of the anointing of the High Priest; 1st 
Kings, xix., the anointing of Elisha as prophet in the room of Elijah; 
and 1 Samuel, x., the anointing of Saul as King of the Israelites. See 
also the anointing of David as King, 1 Sam. xvi., 2 Sam. ii. & v. ; and 
of Solomon, 1 Kings, i.* The Latin writers preferred to retain the 
Greek appellation Christus rather than to substitute the Latin unctus or 
delihutus. Lactantius says, lib. iv. cap. 7, " But the meaning of the name 
must be explained on account of the error of those ignorant persons, 
who, by changing a letter, call it Chrestus. The Jews were commanded 
to make a sacred ointment wherewith to anoint those who were called to 
the priesthood or the kingdom : and as, now, the purple is the ensign of 
royalty amongst the Romans, so, amongst them, the anointing with the 
sacred ointment conferred the royal name and authority. But since 
the ancient Greeks used the verb XpisaQcu for to be anointed, instead of 
the present one aX£KpE<70ai, we call him Christus, i. e. anointed, which, 
in Hebrew, is Messiah. Whence it is, that in some Greek scriptures, 

* XpjcrTe? applied to Cyrus, Isaiah xlv. 1. 



APPENDIX. 83 

translated badly from the Hebrew, we find written *j*e»/xev» ? , i. e. ungendo 
curatus, from cttei<pso-Qcci. However, either word signifies a King ; not, 
indeed, that he obtained an earthly kingdom, the time for which is not 
yet come, but a heavenly and eternal one.' In the New Testament, the 
word Xgtcrroj occurs frequently, both by itself and in conjunction with 
Jesus, as Wa$ o Xjjotos. In Daniel ix. it stands alone, sue X^ara •nya^tve, 
unto Christ the Prince : where also it is said, re <r(p^uyiaon ogaciv x«» 
irgoQriTEiotv xat re xi i<7Ul &7 iOV dyiuv, to seal up the vision and prophecy, 
and anoint the holy of holies." 

Stephanus gives abundant instances of the use of the verb %£»&>, and 
of its derivatives, xz t(7T °s> X% ic7 p«>, &c, in the sense of anointing or smear- 
ing, ungo, lino, seu perungo, inungo, oblino, illino, amongst Greek 
authors, viz. : Homer, Xenophon, Euripides, Theocritus, Dioscorides, 
Philoxenus, &c. 

The Jews applied the term Messiah, or anointed, to their expected 
deliverer long before Jesus appeared. The Septuagint, made about 
three centuries before his time, gives xg iar °s as tne translation of this 
word, and the verb xz iu > w ^h its derivations used in a similar sense, was 
very common amongst Greek authors from the earliest times. The 
origin of the application of the name Christ to Jesus seems, therefore, to 
be very satisfactorily established, in conformity with the unanimous 
testimony of the Christian church. 

But Volney, Dupuis, and others, neglect this derivation of the name, 
and suppose it to be a corruption of some ancient appellation of the Sun. 
Volney says, ch. xxii. sect. 1 3, " The mythological traditions maintain 
that he (the Sun) was called sometimes Chris, or Conservator ; and 
hence the Hindoo God, Chris-en or Christna ; and the Christian 
Chris-tos, the Son of Mary ;" which is supported thus in a note, " Chris, 
or Conservator. The Greeks used to express by X, the aspirated ha of 
the Orientals, who said hdris. In Hebrew, heres signifies the sun ; but, 
in Arabic, the meaning of the radical word is, to guard, to preserve, and 
of hdris, guardian, preserver." 

This is far from satisfactory, and cannot set aside the clear explanation 
quoted above ; even though we should admit that some of the traditions 
respecting the Divinities representing the Sun came to be applied to 
Jesus Christ. 

Of the Hindoo God Crishna, Sir W. Jones gives the following 
account (Works, 4to, vol. i. p. 278) : " That the name of Crishna, and 
the general outline of his story, were long anterior to the birth of our 
Saviour, and probably to the time of Homer, we know very certainly.* 



* In Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 426, he gives some reasons for fixing the date of 
Crishna's appearance, real or imagined, about 1200 years before Christ. 



84 APPENDIX. 

Yet the celebrated poem entitled Bhagavat,* which contains a prolix 
account of his life, is filled with narratives of a most extraordinary kind, 
but strangely variegated and intermixed with poetical decorations. The 
incarnate deity of the Sanscrit romance was cradled among herdsmen ; 
he was educated among them, and passed his youth in playing with milk- 
maids. A tyrant, at the time of his birth, ordered all new-bom male 
infants to be slain ; yet this wonderful babe was preserved in an extraor- 
dinary manner from a nurse commissioned to kill him. He performed 
amazing but ridiculous miracles in his infancy, and, at the age of seven 
years, held up a mountain on the tip of his little finger : he saved multi- 
tudes, partly by his arms and partly by his miraculous powers ; he raised 
the dead by descending for that purpose to the lowest regions ; he was 
the meekest and best-tempered of beings, washed the feet of the Brah- 
mans, and preached very nobly indeed, and sublimely, but always in their 
favour ; he was pure in reality, but exhibited an appearance of libertinism ; 
lastly, he was benevolent and tender, yet fomented and conducted a ter- 
rible war. This motley story must induce an opinion that the spurious 
gospels which abounded in the first age of Christianity had been brought 
to India, and the wildest parts of them repeated to the Hindoos, who 
engrafted them on the old fable of Cesava, the Apollo of Greece." He 
says, in another place, that the meaning of the word Crishna is dark-blue, 
approaching to black, which is supposed to have been his complexion ; 
and hence the large bee of that colour is consecrated to him. 

Captain Wilford adds to the foregoing account, " The Yadus, his own 
tribe and nation, were doomed to destruction for their sins ;" and " the 
real name of Crishna was Caneya, and he was surnamed Crishna, or 
the black, on account of his complexion." 

From all this there appears no reason to suppose that the name Christ 
was borrowed from Crishna, or that the two had a common origin. 
Christos, in Greek, signified anointed ; and Crishna, with the Hindoos, 
black. The many rude resemblances between the story of the Hindoo 
God, and the Gospel accounts of Jesus, especially that of Matthew, may 
be explained by supposing that the similarity of the names, of itself a mere 
coincidence, led both the Hindoos and the Christians to borrow from each 
other, parts of the stories relating to the two objects of worship. It 
seems probable, however, that in the greater part of these resemblances 
the Hindoos were the plagiarists. 



* The Bhagavat is the last of the eighteen Puranas, of which Captain Wilford 
says (Essay on the Origin and Decline of the Christian Religion in India, Asiatic 
Researches, vol. x.), " Every one of the Puranas is nrach later than our aera; though 
many legends, and the materials in general, certainly existed before, in some other 
shape. 



APPENDIX. 85 

Page 37. — In what language should God have written his message? 

" Au lieu de suspendre un soleil dans la voute du firmament ; au lieu 
de repandre sans ordre les etoiles et les constellations qui remplissent 
l'espace, n' eut-il pas ete plus conforme aux vues d'un Dieu si jaloux de 
sa gloire, et si bien intentionne pour l'homme, d'ecrire d'une facon non 
sujette a dispute, son nom, ses attributs, ses volontes permanentes, en 
earacteres ineffacables, et lisibles egalement pour tous les habitans de la 
terre ?" — Systeme de la Nature. 



Page 49. — Some principle not manifesting itself apart from matter. 

The objections of reputed Atheists apply chiefly to the idea of a 
Demi-urgus or creating God, distinct from the universe itself. Shelley 
says that his negation of a God must be understood solely to affect a 
creative Deity, and that the hypothesis of a pervading Spirit, coeternal 
with the universe, remains unshaken. 

Theism is not limited to the belief in an artificer who, at a certain 
time, created the material world from nothing, It recognizes an intelli- 
gent principle, which causes material things to be in the form which we 
see ; but whether this principle operates by successive acts of creation, or 
by a perpetually influencing presence, or both, is a separate and more 
difficult consideration. The Soul or Spirit of the Universe, considered 
as a mind animating and regulating it, as the human mind does the 
body, is an idea which gives rise to the religious sentiments, in as great 
a degree, probably, as that of a strictly creative agent. 



Page 59. — Dante relates, fyc. 

On referring to the passage, Paradiso, Canto 33, after this note was 
gone to press, I have found that the meaning of Dante was, probably, 
to shadow forth the second person of the Trinity. He would, doubtless, 
excuse an inaccuracy which makes his splendid imagery serve a further- 
purpose than it was at first intended for. 



Page 65. — The zeal which wastes itself in mis-directed missionary 
exertion. 

Sir W. Jones says (Works, vol. i. p. 279), " As to the general extension 
of our pure faith in Hindostan, there are at present many sad obstacles to 
it. The Mussulmen are already a sort of heterodox Christians : they are 



86 APPENDIX. 

Christians, if Locke reasons justly, because they believe firmly the imma- 
culate conception, divine character, and miracles of the Messiah ; but 
they are heterodox in denying vehemently his character of Son, and his 
equality as God with the Father, of whose unity and attributes they 
entertain and express the most awful ideas ; while they consider our 
doctrine as perfect blasphemy, and insist that our copies of the Scrip- 
tures have been corrupted both by Jews and Christians. It will be 
inexpressibly difficult to undeceive them, and scarcely possible to dimi- 
nish their veneration for Mohammed and Ali, who were both very extra- 
ordinary men, and the second a man of unexceptionable morals. The 
Koran shines, indeed, with a borrowed light, since most of its beauties 
are taken from our Scriptures ; but it has great beauties, and the Mus- 
sulmen will not be convinced that they were borrowed. The Hindoos, 
on the other hand, would readily admit the truth of the Gospel ; but 
they contend that it is perfectly consistent with their Sastras : the Deity, 
they say, has appeared innumerable times, in many parts of this world, 
and of all worlds, for the salvation of his creatures ; and though we 
adore him in one appearance, and they in another, yet we adore, they 
say, the same God, to whom our several worships, though different in 
form, are equally acceptable, if they be sincere in substance. We may 
assure ourselves, that neither Mussulmen nor Hindoos will ever be con- 
verted by any mission from the church of Rome, or any church ; and 
the only human mode, perhaps, of causing so great a revolution, will 
be to. translate into Sanscrit and Persian such chapters of the Prophets, 
particularly of Isaiah, as are indisputably evangelical, together with one 
of the Gospels, and a plain prefatory discourse containing full evidence 
of the very distant ages in which the predictions themselves, and the 
history of the divine person predicted, were made public ; and then quietly 
to disperse the work among the well-educated natives, ith whom, if in 
due time it failed of producing very salutary fruit by its l airal influence, 
we could only lament more than ever the strength of prejudice, and the 
weakness of unassisted reason." 



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^ Treatment Date: June 2005 



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